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だけ

dake

Draw a line, erase the outside: だけ

The picture You draw a line around something and treat everything outside it as gone. Draw the line tight and it means "just this"; push it out as far as it goes and it means "as much as possible".

Particles

Where the picture shows up in だけ

  1. a line around a thing

    だけください。

    mizu dake kudasai

    Just water, nothing else, please.

  2. a line around an action

    見ているだけです。

    mite iru dake desu

    I'm not buying — just looking.

    This is the set phrase you use when a shop assistant approaches you.

  3. a line around a span of time

    五分だけ待ってください。

    go-fun dake matte kudasai

    Five minutes and no more — please wait that long.

  4. the line pushed out

    できるだけ早く連絡します。

    dekiru dake hayaku renraku shimasu

    I'll get in touch as soon as I possibly can.

    Memorise できるだけ whole: here the line is pushed to its widest, not drawn tight.

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