只能 in English

Measure word

• 次 cì next in sequence; second; the second (day, time etc); secondary; vice-; sub-; infra-; inferior quality; substandard... attested in use

Character breakdown

• 只隻 zhī classifier for birds and certain animals…
• 能 néng can

Stroke order

How it used to be written

只

• Chu manuscripts 戰國.楚
• Small seal script

能

• Bronze script 西周早期
• Clerical script 東漢
• See all 14 forms

Forms, sources and dates: the 字形演變 database of 小學堂, Academia Sinica, public domain (CC0).

Examples

• 他只能看着。

  He could only watch.

• 女性永远只能扮演次要角色吗？

  Must the woman always play the secondary role?

• 我们只能滥用善良的。

  We can only abuse of things that are good.

• 我只能给你十分钟。

  I can only give you ten minutes.

• 我只能问自己这对其他所有人是不是一回事呢。

  I can only wonder if this is the same for everyone else.

• 我要说的只能是你知我知。

  What I'm about to say is strictly between you and me.

• 那个时候，我们只能听到关于盗窃、杀人、以及饿死了人的故事。

  During that time, we only heard about thieves, about murders, about men who had died of hunger.

All example sentences with 只能