Examples:
Nihongo o nijikan
gurai
benkyou simasita.
(I) studied Japanese (for) (about)
two hours.
Nihongo o nijikan
hodo
benkyou simasita.
(I) studied Japanese (for) (up
to)
two hours.
Nihongo o nijikan
dake
benkyou simasita.
(I) studied Japanese (for) (only)
two hours.
Nihongo o nijikan
bakari
benkyou simasita.
(I) studied Japanese (for) (only/about)
two hours [but it wasn't enough].
Another important
function of bakari
is to indicate that what
precedes it is the prime thing, with no emphasis on anything
else.
Examples:
Gakkou de Nihongo
dake
o benkyou site imasu.
school Japanese am studying
(At) school (I) am studying (only) Japanese [and no other foreign
language].
Gakkou de Nihongo
bakari
o benkyou site imasu.
school Japanese am studying
(At) school (I) am studying (only) Japanese [to the exclusion of
other things].
bakari
can replace dake
in the expression dake
de naku to
emphasize
that what precedes it is not the "only thing".
Example:
Kanojo wa Nihongo
bakari de
naku,
Furansugo mo dekimasu.
she Japanese French can
She can (speak) not (just) Japanese, (but) (also) French.
When used after
the plain past form of a verb, bakari
indicates that
the action of the verb has just happened.
Examples:
Sono hon wa
yomiowatta bakari
desu.
that book finished reading is
(I) have (just) finished reading that book.
Kare wa sono
kuruma o katta bakari
desu.
he that car bought is
He has (just) bought that car.
Ima uti ni modotta
bakari
desu.
now home returned is
(I) have (just) now returned home.
Kare wa
mainiti patinko bakari
yatte imasu.
He every day pachinko playing
He (does nothing but) play pachinko everyday.
Kanojo wa itu mo
sono uta bakari
utatte imasu.
She always that song singing
She is always singing (only) that song [and no other
song].
Sanjuppun
bakari
hirune o simasita.
thirty minutes nap did
(I) napped for (only) thirty minutes.
Watasi wa Nihon ni
kita bakari
desu.
I Japan came is
I (have only just) come to Japan.
Juudou
bakari de
naku karate
mo yatte mitai desu.
judo karate want to do
I want (to) do (not only) judo (but also) karate.
Ima tabeowatta
bakari
desu.
now finished eating is
(I) (only) now (just) finished eating.
Note:
the use of desu
in the above sentences has the function
primarily of only completing the sentence. It doesn't need to
be translated in making an English equivalent of the Japanese
sentences. If one wanted to force the issue, you could consider
this usage of desu
as having a slight meaning of "it
is (a fact that)", but it is not necessary to include this in
an English equivalent.
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