只能
zhǐ​néng HSK2

can only

只能 zhǐ​néng
can only adverb
restricted to a specific action, limit, or possibility

他只能说一点点法语。

tā zhǐ​néng shuō yī​diǎn​diǎn Fǎ​yǔ.

He can only speak a little bit of French.

have no choice but adverb
to have no other option but to perform a specific action, usually used when facing difficult circumstances.

面对突然发生的状况，他只能寻求警方的帮助。

miàn​duì tū​rán fā​shēng de zhuàng​kuàng, tā zhǐ​néng xún​qiú jǐng​fāng de bāng​zhù.

Faced with the sudden situation, he had no choice but to seek help from the police.

no choice adverb
obliged to do something because there is no other alternative

既然公共汽车已经走了，我只能走路回家。

jì​rán gōng​gòng qì​chē yǐ​jīng zǒu le, wǒ zhǐ​néng zǒu​lù huí​jiā.

Since the bus has already left, I have no choice but to walk home.

Frequency
Movie subtitles
80.0 per million appears in 32% of films
Written text
193.6 per million

Details
HSK 3.0
Level 2

Sources
Definitions
CC-CEDICTAI-generated definitions
Frequency data
SUBTLEX-CHBCC Corpus (BLCU)