ばかりだjust keeps getting (worse)
Something keeps changing in one direction, with no sign of turning back. It is mostly a change nobody wants: prices up, health down.
I'm taking the medicine, but my symptoms just keep getting worse.
How to form it
Verb for a change, in the dictionary form + ばかりだ
Polite ばかりです, past ばかりだった. In conversation the だ often drops.
Which ばかり?
What comes before ばかり, and after it, tells you which one you have.
"Nothing but": too much of one thing, often a complaint.
Eats nothing but meat. Does nothing but play.
Dictionary form + ばかりだN3This page
"Keeps getting", usually for the worse.
Things just keep getting worse.
"Only just did". Also たばかりの, たばかりで, たばかりなのに.
I only got here a moment ago.
"Just because", with a bad result and regret.
Just because I told a lie, I lost people's trust.
In use
The verb is a change that goes on by degrees: 増える, 減る, 上がる, 悪くなる, 広がる. It often comes after のに or ても: something was tried, and it made no difference. You will hear it in conversation and read it in the news.
Prices just keep going up every month.
For five years now, the village's population has just kept falling.
We talked it over, but the misunderstanding only got deeper.
Has work calmed down lately?
No, it just keeps piling up.
Mostly bad news
It is the voice of someone worried or fed up, who sees no end to it. A few welcome things take it too, ones that build and build: hopes, excitement, popularity. With other good news it usually sounds odd.
The fans' hopes just keep rising.
Sounds odd: 新しい
Since I started the new medicine, I have just kept getting better.
Good news is どんどんよくなっている.
Close neighbours
ていくN4
A change that goes on from now, welcome or not, with no worry in it.
The number of people working online will probably keep growing.
The same shape with a verb that isn't a change, usually after あとは: everything is ready, and "all that's left is to…".
The packing is done and the tickets are checked. All that's left is to leave the house.
Check yourself
1What does this mean?
家賃は
Choose an answer to see why.
2The electricity bill is up again. Which one sounds fed up?
Choose an answer to see why.
More sentences
With one dry day after another, the water in the reservoir just keeps going down.
Since we stopped looking after it, the garden has only got wilder.
The number of users is falling, while maintenance costs just keep rising.
If the response is delayed, the damage will only go on spreading.