zhǐ bú guò
only; just; merely
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只不过他没说出口。
zhǐ bù guò tā méi shuō chūkǒu.
But he didn't say it.
反而 (fǎn'ěr)
on the contrary
倒是 (dào shì)
on the contrary
The Chinese word 只不过 (zhǐbùguò) is composed of three characters: 只 (zhǐ), 不 (bù), and 过 (guò). The character 只 means "only" or "just", 不 means "not", and 过 means "to pass" or "to exceed". When combined, these characters form the phrase 只不过, which literally means "only passing by" or "just passing through". In modern Chinese, 只不过 is used as a conjunction to express the idea of "however" or "nevertheless". It is often used to contrast two statements or to introduce an unexpected or contradictory fact. For example, the sentence "我只想休息一下，只不过我还有很多工作要做" means "I just want to take a break, however I still have a lot of work to do". In this sentence, 只不过 is used to contrast the speaker's desire to take a break with the fact that they still have a lot of work to do.
