HanTrace

只能

zhǐ néng

“Can only” in Chinese is 只能 (zhǐ néng).

Meaning

  • can only
  • obliged to do sth
  • to have no other choice

Example

他只能看着。

He could only watch.

Example sentence from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0).

Characters

More HSK 2 words

Not to be confused with: 智能 (zhìnéng, intelligent) · 职能 (zhínéng, function)