しかない details
write + have no choice but to do
kaku shika nai
have no choice but to do; there is nothing for it but to
meaning: have no choice but to write
バスがないなら、歩くしかないね。
basu ga nai nara, aruku shika nai ne.
If there's no bus, we have no choice but to walk. casual
部品が届いていないので、来週まで待つしかない。
buhin ga todoite inai node, raishuu made matsu shika nai.
The parts haven't arrived, so we have no choice but to wait until next week. neutral
- contraction
- colloquial
- past
- polite
Examples
have no choice but to — every other option is gone, so one course is left
バスがないなら、歩くしかないね。
basu ga nai nara, arukushikanai ne.
If there's no bus, we have no choice but to walk. casual
部品が届いていないので、来週まで待つしかありません。
buhin ga todoite inai node, raishuu made matsushikaarimasen.
The parts haven't arrived, so we have no choice but to wait until next week. neutral
昨日は大雨で、試合は中止にするしかなかった。
kinou wa ooame de, shiai wa chuushi ni suru shika nakatta.
It poured yesterday, so we had no choice but to call the match off. neutral
Formation
{V}しかないattaches to dictionary form
Variant notes
- っきゃない — しか→っきゃ, spoken only and emphatic — やるっきゃない. Dated enough to sound like a slogan, so it is a stylistic choice rather than a neutral shortening.
- しかないです — politeness added with です rather than by conjugating ない; lighter than しかありません and the likelier shape in conversation.
Notes
"no choice but to skip it" is carried by a positive verb instead
(諦めるしかない).
Related patterns
Similar
Same elimination at opposite registers — 待つしかない is ordinary speech and turns up mid-conversation, while 待つよりほかない is written-formal enough that saying it aloud sounds like reading from a statement.
Both push toward a single act, from opposite directions — なければならない names an obligation imposed by a rule or a duty, しかない reports that the alternatives ran out, so it carries resignation and never appears in a regulation.
Lookalikes
Same しか〜ない spelling, different arithmetic — after a noun the ない is the sentence's own predicate and can sit clauses away (水しか飲まない), after a dictionary verb しかない is one welded word and no other negative appears at all.