How to Say “Have No Choice but to” with 只好 (zhǐhǎo)

只好 (zhǐhǎo) is the resigned “have no choice but to / no other option but to.” Something in the situation has closed off every better path, so you fall back on the one option left, usually the one you'd rather have avoided. The frame is a cause clause first, then (Subject +) 只好 + Verb Phrase: 没买到票，我们只好在家看 (“we couldn't get tickets, so we had no choice but to watch at home”), 电梯坏了，大家只好走楼梯 (“the lift was broken, so everyone had to take the stairs”). 只好 sits right before the verb, after any subject, and it always looks back at the situation that forced your hand.

The reluctance is the whole point. 只好 isn't a neutral “so”; it carries a small sigh, “given all that, I'll just settle for this.” That's why it pairs with fallbacks nobody's thrilled about: waiting instead of getting in, spending the night at the airport, ordering something else because the doctor ruled out spicy food. If the outcome is something you're actually happy with, 只好 is the wrong word and you want plain 所以 (“so / therefore”) instead: 我很喜欢跑步，所以每天跑 (“I love running, so I run every day”), never 只好, because there's no reluctance to mark.

The word learners mix it up with is 只能 (zhǐnéng, “can only / the only thing possible”). In a forced-circumstance sentence they often both fit, with a nuance: 没有电梯，只好走楼梯 frames the stairs as a resigned fallback (“no choice but to take them”), while 没有电梯，只能走楼梯 frames them as the only thing possible (“can only take them”). The gap opens up when the point is pure ability rather than a chosen fallback: 我只能说一点中文 (“I can only speak a little Chinese”) and 我只能听懂一半 (“I can only understand half”) are standing limits on what you're able to do; 只好 can't stand in there, because there's no situation forcing a decision, only a ceiling on ability. Rule of thumb: if you're reluctantly picking the last option, reach for 只好; if you're stating the limit of what's possible, use 只能.

Two more things to keep straight. First, don't let the shared 好 blur 只好 into 最好 (zuìhǎo, “had better / best”), which gives friendly advice: 这个方法很好，你最好试试 (“this method's good, you'd better try it”). 你只好试试 would instead mean “you have no choice but to try,” a very different message. Second, 只好 is close to 不得不 (bùdébù, a double-negative “cannot but / have to”): both land you on the only available action, but 不得不 stresses outside compulsion (“can't not do it”) while 只好 stresses picking the last option and resigning to it. And keep the Chinese word order in mind: 只好 comes before the verb it governs, never trailing at the end. It's 我们只好走楼梯, not 我们走楼梯只好.