Can only in Chinese
can only · HSK 3
只能
- 只 only
- 能 can
下雨了，我们只能待在家里。 It's raining, so we have no choice but to stay at home.
Other ways to say can only
More words with 只 or 能
How do you say can only in Chinese?
Can only in Chinese is 只能 (zhǐ néng). You can also say 只有 (zhǐ yǒu).
Which word should I use?
Start with the first one: it is the easiest on the HSK list. The others say it too, often in a more formal way or for a narrower sense; each one’s page has real sentences that show how it is used.
Where do these words come from?
The CC-CEDICT dictionary’s meanings for the official HSK word list. A word is shown for an English word when that is one of its first meanings; the easiest word whose first meaning it is comes first.
More free tools
Greetings: hello, good morning and goodbye. Measure words: the classifier for any noun. Tone practice: say a word and see your tones. Read any Mandarin: point at a word for its meaning.
Meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese often has more than one way to say a word.