So what’s the difference? Both phrases have a negative connotation and both can be used to say there are (too) many of something.

The most important distinction is that だらけ refers to something is covered in many individual things, whereas ばかり suggests only one from many possibilities.

怪我して体が傷だらけだった。
To have an accident and be covered in bruises.

怪我して体が傷ばかりだった。
(Sounds unnatural—what else could you be covered in after an accident?).

You May Also Like

Except

以外いがい means “other than” or “except for”. It is added directly to nouns and verbs in their dictionary form.…

Expressing Similarity in Japanese (よう) & (みたい)

Although the grammar for よう and みたい is slightly different their meaning is essentially the same. You can…

Japanese Grammar, Vocabulary, Kanji Quizzes

There are two types of quizzes below: (1) multiple choice and (2) free-form answers which require you to…

Changing Nouns to Adjectives: ~的

的てき as a noun means “target” or “objective”; however, this kanji has one particularly useful grammatical usage: by…