English translation:
only
nothing but
Structure:
Verb[ て ] + ばかり
Noun + ばかり
Explanation:
[ばかり can be used together with verb[ている], if so: verb[て] + ばかり + いる is used. for combining sentences ばかりで is used. In case of verb[ている] both ばかりいて and ばかりで can be used.]
A suggestion for @pushindawood and the rest of the team
N+ばかり and Vて+ばかりいる seem different enough that they should be different grammar points with separate examples.
I couldn’t find it on the site, so I thought I’d mention it since it came up in a book I’m referencing. ばかり with counters. Probably should be its own grammar point. But the book describes it as “counter + ばかり” and means “more or less” or “about”, similar to くらい, but more formal.
甘い物をたべてばかりいると、虫歯が増える。[食たべる]
甘い物をばかりたべていると、虫歯が増える。
I wonder if the second sentence is also acceptable.
Hey and welcome on the community forums 
Yes, they are both acceptable, though you don’t really need を.
So:
甘い物をたべてばかりいると、虫歯が増える。
甘い物ばかりをたべていると、虫歯が増える。
are perfect
But all of those are acceptable:
甘い物をたべてばかりいると、虫歯が増える。
甘い物をばかりたべていると、虫歯が増える。(feels less natural)
甘い物ばかりをたべていると、虫歯が増える。(feels less natural)
甘い物ばかりたべていると、虫歯が増える。
I hope it helps,
Cheers!
PS
I love your avatar
The LearnJapanese link looks to be down and redirects to this: http://learnjapanese.becauseofdreams.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi
@darkness_rising Thank you for letting us know so that we could update the Readings section with a different link. Cheers!
The meaning wouldn’t really fit (“all that person chases is dreams”).
ない indeed doesn’t connect to a subsequent sentence (but that could be addressed, it’s not a limitation of しか…ない specifically).
There’s also that the negative form of 追いかける is 追いかけない.
And the particle を is typically left out before しか.
I always mix ところ and ばかり and from what I looked up, sometimes they can be interchanged albeit with small different nuances.
Shouldn’t a hint come up instead of straight up refusing it as wrong or I’m missing something?
Just guessing based off where you posted this question. You can’t replace ばかり with ところ on this grammar point because Verb［て］+ ところ isn’t a thing afaik.
I feel like there usually aren’t hints for ungrammatical alternatives.
Probably I posted this on the wrong grammar point, I tried to avoid creating a new one. Quoting from this website:
Of course the site shouldn’t give hints for ungrammatical alternatives, but this seems to be accepted with the ~た
Well I just checked a single sentence for the たばかり grammar point and it gave a warning / hint when attempting to use たところ.
You are right, I guess I just either hit one that doesn’t have it (highly unlikely) or I used it the wrong way (more likely).
Just tried it the other way around and it also gave me the warning/hint.
