What does しか mean in this context?


> 学生はおおぜいきましたか。  
>  いいえ、3人 **しか** 来ませんでした。わたしとトムさんとアンさんです。

Can you give more example in which しか is used so that I can understand it?




My general gloss for しか is "other than", or "non-". It is a strongly [negative
polarity item](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1565/); it will
only be seen in combination with a verb in negative form.

Here, other-than three people (人) did not come (来 + ません + でした, conjugated
formally; the informal version is 来なかった). With quantities, specifically, we
interpret that _more than_ three people did not come. In other words, _only_
three people came (i.e., we _excluded the possibility_ of it being more than
that).

This also explains the idiom しかない: it is simply a combination of しか with the
negative adjective ない. Thus: 猫しかない -> "cat -other-than does-not-exist" ->
"(it) must be a cat"; 立つことしかない -> "stand-up -act-of -other-than does-not-
exist" -> "(you) only need to stand up".




My general gloss for しか is "other than", or "non-". It is a strongly [negative
polarity item](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1565/); it will
only be seen in combination with a verb in negative form.

Here, other-than three people (人) did not come (来 + ません + でした, conjugated
formally; the informal version is 来なかった). With quantities, specifically, we
interpret that _more than_ three people did not come. In other words, _only_
three people came (i.e., we _excluded the possibility_ of it being more than
that).

This also explains the idiom しかない: it is simply a combination of しか with the
negative adjective ない. Thus: 猫しかない -> "cat -other-than does-not-exist" ->
"(it) must be a cat"; 立つことしかない -> "stand-up -act-of -other-than does-not-
exist" -> "(you) only need to stand up".

