barely
- Yudan Taiteki
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Re: barely
Oops, an extra "class" got in that second example -- it should have just been "I barely missed today's class."
I think the sentence seems a little odd out of context, but if you say there's a teacher that locks the door to the class once it starts so that late people can't come in, it's a perfectly fine sentence.
I think the sentence seems a little odd out of context, but if you say there's a teacher that locks the door to the class once it starts so that late people can't come in, it's a perfectly fine sentence.
-Chris Kern
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Re: barely
I disagree. There are contexts where "barely" of a discrete quantity may include "slightly more than". This is easier to see with bigger numbers.chikara wrote:5 and only 5, and to me the nuance of "barely" in that context is that you consider you were fortunate to get those correct. Personally I wouldn't use "barely" in that context. In a correct/incorrect or true/false situation you either got 5 or you didn't.Gundaetiapo wrote:1a: "I barely got 5 questions correct on the test."
1b: "I got barely 5 questions correct on the test."
How many questions did I get correct? ....
barely adv 1. only; just; no more than; she is barely sixteen
"There were barely enough tents for the thousands who lost their homes in the earthquake."
If there were a small surplus of one or two (or zero), this would still be a correct statement.
Re: barely
I'd like to know if my interpretation of "barely missed" is correct or not.
Here is an example sentence.
"I barely missed the TV show last week."
My interpretation is;
1) If the show is a daily based ( 5 times a week) program, it means the speaker watched it 4 times, but missed 1 time.
2) If the show is a weekly program or a non-serial program, the speaker couldn't/ didn't watch the show.
Am I right?
Thanks in advance.
Here is an example sentence.
"I barely missed the TV show last week."
My interpretation is;
1) If the show is a daily based ( 5 times a week) program, it means the speaker watched it 4 times, but missed 1 time.
2) If the show is a weekly program or a non-serial program, the speaker couldn't/ didn't watch the show.
Am I right?
Thanks in advance.
- chikara
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Re: barely
No it isn't. With respect, you are wrong.Gundaetiapo wrote:... I disagree. There are contexts where "barely" of a discrete quantity may include "slightly more than". This is easier to see with bigger numbers.
"There were barely enough tents for the thousands who lost their homes in the earthquake."
If there were a small surplus of one or two (or zero), this would still be a correct statement.
The OED gives the definition of "barely" in that context as "only just sufficient". That certainly does not imply any surplus at all.
Last edited by chikara on Sun 05.25.2008 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Don't complain to me that people kick you when you're down. It's your own fault for lying there
- chikara
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Re: barely
Coco-san, I agree with 1) but IMHO 2) is ambiguous (the native English speakers in this thread can't agree on the meaning) and "barely" is a poor choice of word in that scenario, as it is to a lesser extent in scenario 1).coco wrote:I'd like to know if my interpretation of "barely missed" is correct or not.
Here is an example sentence.
"I barely missed the TV show last week."
My interpretation is;
1) If the show is a daily based ( 5 times a week) program, it means the speaker watched it 4 times, but missed 1 time.
2) If the show is a weekly program or a non-serial program, the speaker couldn't/ didn't watch the show.
Am I right?
Thanks in advance.
Don't complain to me that people kick you when you're down. It's your own fault for lying there
Re: barely
Two things I would like to ask:
1) Would the sentence work with "almost"? (But with the opposite meaning.)
I ran as hard as I could, and I almost missed the train.
2) Would the original sentence be clearer if we used "but" instead of "and"?
I ran as hard as I could, but I barely missed the train.
1) Would the sentence work with "almost"? (But with the opposite meaning.)
I ran as hard as I could, and I almost missed the train.
2) Would the original sentence be clearer if we used "but" instead of "and"?
I ran as hard as I could, but I barely missed the train.
僕の下手な日本語を直してください。
- Yudan Taiteki
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Re: barely
But if you're talking about thousands of tents, it's highly unlikely that they will have literally the exact number of tents. I agree with Gundaetiapo that if there are 2452 families that need tents, and there are 2460 tents, you could describe that as "barely enough tents". Although it seems to have the implication that more tents would have been even better for some reason.chikara wrote:No it isn't. With respect, you are wrong.Gundaetiapo wrote:... I disagree. There are contexts where "barely" of a discrete quantity may include "slightly more than". This is easier to see with bigger numbers.
"There were barely enough tents for the thousands who lost their homes in the earthquake."
If there were a small surplus of one or two (or zero), this would still be a correct statement.
The OED gives the definition of "barely" in that context as "only just sufficient". That certainly does not imply any surplus at all.
-Chris Kern
Re: barely
I concur. I think that getting "barely 5 questions right" on the test would change in meaning based on how many there are total. If there were 200 questions on the test, it's entirely possible the person is meaning they got at least 5 right, with the possibility of a few more.Yudan Taiteki wrote: But if you're talking about thousands of tents, it's highly unlikely that they will have literally the exact number of tents. I agree with Gundaetiapo that if there are 2452 families that need tents, and there are 2460 tents, you could describe that as "barely enough tents".
If there were only 10 questions on the test, I would be less inclined to think that more than five are possible.
I think it has the implication that as they were handing out tents, at some point they were worried that there wouldn't actually be enough. Luckily, after the fact, it turns out there were.Although it seems to have the implication that more tents would have been even better for some reason.
Re: barely
Chikara-san, I think I understand what you said.chikara wrote:Coco-san, I agree with 1) but IMHO 2) is ambiguous (the native English speakers in this thread can't agree on the meaning) and "barely" is a poor choice of word in that scenario, as it is to a lesser extent in scenario 1).coco wrote:I'd like to know if my interpretation of "barely missed" is correct or not.
Here is an example sentence.
"I barely missed the TV show last week."
My interpretation is;
1) If the show is a daily based ( 5 times a week) program, it means the speaker watched it 4 times, but missed 1 time.
2) If the show is a weekly program or a non-serial program, the speaker couldn't/ didn't watch the show.
Am I right?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you for the explanation.

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Re: barely
"barely" can refer to time or to quantity. In this case, it's time.coco wrote:I'd like to know if my interpretation of "barely missed" is correct or not.
Here is an example sentence.
"I barely missed the TV show last week."
My interpretation is;
1) If the show is a daily based ( 5 times a week) program, it means the speaker watched it 4 times, but missed 1 time.
2) If the show is a weekly program or a non-serial program, the speaker couldn't/ didn't watch the show.
Am I right?
Thanks in advance.
"I barely missed the TV show last week (because a meeting ran long)."
Are you asking about using "barely" to refer to the quantity of TV episodes?
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Re: barely
Yes, I think you have the right idea, Tanuki.tanuki wrote:Two things I would like to ask:
1) Would the sentence work with "almost"? (But with the opposite meaning.)
I ran as hard as I could, and I almost missed the train.
2) Would the original sentence be clearer if we used "but" instead of "and"?
I ran as hard as I could, but I barely missed the train.
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Re: barely
I would say barely means statement satisfied but with a small change in circumstances it would not have been.
Re: barely
yeah, I think that sentence would imply that you were almost on time for the show. It seems strange, though, because if you miss more than the first few minutes of a TV show the rest of it tends to be gibberish (at least, if it has a plot). So possibly "I barely missed the beginning of the show", and because of that they decided not to watch it? (Because of it not making sense until you see the entire thing). It does seem rather strange to say you barely missed a TV show, though; being 35 minutes late to a 30 minute thing doesn't strike me as an appropriate time to use the word "barely".Gundaetiapo wrote:"barely" can refer to time or to quantity. In this case, it's time.coco wrote:I'd like to know if my interpretation of "barely missed" is correct or not.
Here is an example sentence.
"I barely missed the TV show last week."
My interpretation is;
1) If the show is a daily based ( 5 times a week) program, it means the speaker watched it 4 times, but missed 1 time.
2) If the show is a weekly program or a non-serial program, the speaker couldn't/ didn't watch the show.
Am I right?
Thanks in advance.
"I barely missed the TV show last week (because a meeting ran long)."
Are you asking about using "barely" to refer to the quantity of TV episodes?
If the person was talking about a program that aired daily, and missing an episode, they would've said something closer to "I saw almost every episode this week", or "I saw all but one episode this week". Maybe "I saw four of this week's episodes". I don't think any native speaker would use "I barely missed the show" to refer to seeing most of the episodes in a given week; although they might say "I barely missed it" to refer to almost always catching a show (especially if it's no longer running). In that case, though, "I rarely missed it" or "I hardly ever missed it" would seem more common.
Of course, a DVR would make all of this a lot easier

Re: barely
Feba-san,Feba wrote: yeah, I think that sentence would imply that you were almost on time for the show. It seems strange, though, because if you miss more than the first few minutes of a TV show the rest of it tends to be gibberish (at least, if it has a plot). So possibly "I barely missed the beginning of the show", and because of that they decided not to watch it? (Because of it not making sense until you see the entire thing). It does seem rather strange to say you barely missed a TV show, though; being 35 minutes late to a 30 minute thing doesn't strike me as an appropriate time to use the word "barely".
If the person was talking about a program that aired daily, and missing an episode, they would've said something closer to "I saw almost every episode this week", or "I saw all but one episode this week". Maybe "I saw four of this week's episodes". I don't think any native speaker would use "I barely missed the show" to refer to seeing most of the episodes in a given week; although they might say "I barely missed it" to refer to almost always catching a show (especially if it's no longer running). In that case, though, "I rarely missed it" or "I hardly ever missed it" would seem more common.
Of course, a DVR would make all of this a lot easier
Thank you for the detailed and helpful explanation.

Re: barely
Bit late, but here is my take on it
To me "barely missed it" means you missed the train by a small amount, but it sounds like one of those grammatically-correct-but-never-used-in-real-life constructions linguists use to test people
I wouldn't use "barely" in that way, I'd use "just" instead. "I *just* missed the train."
If I use "barely" with "missed" it would usually be in the sense of not getting to the stage/feeling of missing something (emotionally). Ie:
"The colleague who sits next to me was away for 3 weeks on a business trip. I barely missed him."
( = I didn't realise he was gone / I didn't really miss him at all
)
To me "barely missed it" means you missed the train by a small amount, but it sounds like one of those grammatically-correct-but-never-used-in-real-life constructions linguists use to test people

I wouldn't use "barely" in that way, I'd use "just" instead. "I *just* missed the train."
If I use "barely" with "missed" it would usually be in the sense of not getting to the stage/feeling of missing something (emotionally). Ie:
"The colleague who sits next to me was away for 3 weeks on a business trip. I barely missed him."
( = I didn't realise he was gone / I didn't really miss him at all

Last edited by Oracle on Sun 06.08.2008 11:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.