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"barely, hardly" in seven languages

Meaningbarely, hardly

Spanish

apenas

/aˈpenas/

inherited

French

à peine

/a pɛn/

inherited

Italian

appena

/apˈpena/

inherited

Also 'just now' and 'as soon as': appena arrivato.

Portuguese

mal

/maw/

other source · Latin MALE 'badly'

Trap: Portuguese apenas means 'only', not 'barely'.

Romanian

abia

/aˈbja/

other source · of uncertain origin

Catalan

amb prou feines

/əm ˈpɾɔw ˈfɛjnəs/

other source · Catalan phrase 'with enough toil' (prou 'enough' + feines 'tasks')

A penes, the cognate, exists but is literary.

English

barely

/ˈbɛɹli/

native English · Old English bærlīce

English → Italianbarely, hardlyappenaNot relatedDifferent sources — learn this one fresh. But English has relatives: pain, penalty, penal.What English and Italian share

The Latin ancestor

AD + POENAM‘with penalty, with hardship’

All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.

The story

All three say 'with pain': what you do à peine you do with effort, so only just. Spanish added an adverbial -s, Italian fused the preposition and doubled the p.

English relatives: pain, penalty, penal

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In a sentence

  • esApenas lo conozco.
  • frJe le connais à peine.
  • itLo conosco appena.
  • ptMal o conheço.
  • roAbia îl cunosc.
  • caAmb prou feines el conec.
  • enI barely know him.

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