ばかり — tracking all its uses so I don't mix them up

Question

Doing a drill set on ばかり today and I want to make sure I've got the full picture. So far I have: (1) Noun/verb + ばかり = "only/nothing but X" (彼はゲームばかりしている = he does nothing but play games), and I've also seen it stacked after て-form for "just did X" in other material. Is that second use actually the SAME ばかり grammar point or a totally separate pattern that just looks similar? Trying to figure out if it's one flexible rule or two things I need to file separately.

kyoto_no_aki · Accepted Answer

They're related but worth filing as two flavors of the same core meaning ("nothing but/just X"), because the attachment

Answer

They're related but worth filing as two flavors of the same core meaning ("nothing but/just X"), because the attachment point differs. Noun/verb-plain + ばかり = "only/always doing X" — 彼はゲームばかりしている, this is the core use. Verb-た form + ばかり = "just finished doing X" (食べたばかり = just ate) — same underlying idea of "there's basically nothing else going on but X / no meaningful time has passed", just narrowed to the "immediately after" meaning. So one concept, two common attachment patterns.

Answer

good way to think about it — ばかり keeps circling back to "nothing but/just X" no matter what it's attached to, the flavor just shifts with what comes before it.