Almost vs Barely Whats the difference English Adverbs

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about some

differences between the words almost and

barely let’s get started I want to start

this lesson with the word almost for

this lesson I want to mention both

almost and barely are adverbs so they

have the same grammatical function but

they have kind of opposite we can think

of them as kind of having the opposite

meaning so let’s start by talking about

almost and the meaning of almost almost

can mean very nearly but not exactly

it can mean not entirely or not

completely so I think this is best to

explain with some example sentences I’m

going to share some example sentences

that use almost in a couple different

ways let’s look at this first sentence I

almost missed my flight I almost missed

my flight so to miss a flight means you

can’t catch the flight like you’re not

in time for the flight I almost missed

my flight so we know almost means very

nearly or not entirely or not completely

so if we think about it which of these

fits nicely into this sentence I feel

very nearly is a great one to substitute

I very nearly missed my flight I nearly

missed my flight means I caught my

flight so I was very very close I very

nearly did not catch my flight is

another way to say this but we say I

almost missed so that means this action

came very close to happening but it did

not happen let’s look at another example

then she almost fell off her bicycle or

she almost fell off of her bicycle it’s

also okay

so here the verb is fell off fell off

past tense of fall off so that means she

was riding a bicycle or in this case

fall off fell off refers to riding in

this case a bicycle and like losing

balance so falling to the side

becoming separated from the bicycle so

she almost fell off her bicycle here we

can use the same idea let’s substitute

very nearly for almost here she very

nearly fell off her bicycle this means

she did not fall off her bicycle but she

almost or she very nearly did it was

very very close to happening so maybe

she lost her balance on the bicycle but

she fixed it she was able to continue

writing her bicycle so something that

very nearly happened was this this is

the thing that very nearly happened but

it did not exactly happen she almost

fell off so this thing did not happen in

other words okay let’s move on to a

different way of using almost this next

sentence almost everyone got a raise so

here we can think of this with very

nearly that works well here or maybe not

entirely that’s another good one or not

completely like all of these can fit

well in this sentence to substitute

almost everyone very nearly everyone got

a raise so that means not everyone but

very close to everyone so if there are

100 people in your company maybe that

means 95 people got a raise so very

close to everyone very close to all

people got a raise so not everyone not

everything so not entirely everyone not

completely everyone but very nearly

everyone got a raise all right now let’s

look at maybe the most challenging

example sentence here let’s

read it first we almost didn’t make it

to the conference we almost didn’t make

it to the conference so in this sentence

if we if we remove the word almost here

we didn’t make it to the conference it

means we were not able to get to the

conference we couldn’t make it in time

for the conference however if we include

almost that means we very nearly didn’t

make it to the conference that shows we

were able to it was maybe difficult but

we were able to actually make it to the

conference okay

let’s move along to one more a common

one perhaps you almost forgot your

wallet you almost forgot your wallet

again you very nearly forgot your wallet

so we can compare the same thing we did

in this sentence removing almost you

forgot your wallet means the wallet was

left behind like you don’t have your

wallet however you almost forgot your

wallet

it’s imagine someone is running out the

door to go to work and their roommate or

their spouse shouts this you almost

forgot your wallet here you very nearly

left the house without your wallet here

it is so this expression almost this

word shows things that were very close

to happening but they did not happen so

we see that a lot when we have almost in

front of a verb like in these example

sentences here where we have it in front

of a group of people for example it

shows us not entirely as the meaning

okay so let’s compare this to barely

now I mentioned almost in barely are

kind of like opposites a little bit so

again barely is an adverb barely means

only just

it can mean scarcely hardly it can also

mean nothing to spare I’ll show some

examples of this so we can think about

barely like almost not something so

let’s compare some example sentences

here first one I barely made my flight

connection I barely made my flight

connection so here we see barely

before our verb made so to make a flight

to make a flight or to make a flight

connection in this case means to be on

time to be able to go through the

airport and catch your flight in time so

I barely made my flight connection we

can substitute these words again as we

did with almost I only just made my

flight connection so I made my flight

connection with nothing to spare or no

time to spare

so this barely shows us something was

really difficult but I did it so this

did happen I barely made my flight

connection the next example sentence she

barely fit into the truck

so imagine fit into like imagine someone

is moving to a new house a truck is full

of boxes and all kinds of objects from

someone’s house so the truck is really

really full she might say or someone

might say she barely fit into like her

body barely fit into the truck because

it was so full so barely again we can

substitute with only just she barely or

she only just fit into the truck means

she was able to fit into the truck she

did it it was possible okay let’s look

at another one he was barely able to get

tickets to the concert he was barely

able to get tickets to the concert again

he was only just able to get tickets to

the concert so that means maybe it was

difficult to do this there were maybe

just a few tickets left and he purchased

the tickets in time like before they

were all sold out so he was barely able

that means this was possible he achieved

this thing okay

let’s look now at the next example

barely anyone came to the conference so

this one is going to be a little bit

different

we can’t substitute only just in this

case in this case in a sample sentence

like this let’s substitute hardly for

this one hardly anyone came to the

conference that

almost no people came to the conference

so barely anyone shows us the turnout or

the number of participants was very very

low for the conference so this does not

mean only just it means very few or

hardly all right let’s move along to the

last one

we barely had enough time to finish our

project we barely had enough time this

is a common expression we barely had

enough time to do something so this

shows us again we barely had enough time

shows us that there was nothing to spare

so when we use it with an expression

like time it tends to be associated it

tends to relate to this nothing to spare

idea

meaning no time to spare no time to

waste everything must be used

efficiently so we barely had enough time

to finish our project means we finished

the project but it was really really

close so we almost didn’t have enough

time to finish the project so I’ve done

this a couple times throughout the

lesson but actually there are some cases

where we can kind of swap we can kind of

exchange these two words and make like

the opposite version of a sentence so

the first example sentence is a great

example I almost missed my flight and I

barely made my flight or it barely made

my flight connection these mean the same

thing they’re just different ways of

saying it you’ll notice with the verb

almost I almost missed this is kind of a

negative nuance I almost didn’t catch my

flight it almost didn’t happen here it’s

a more positive sounding verb I barely

made my flight it was very close to not

happening but I did it so when you use

barely you can think of this like I said

kind of like the opposite of almost

these are actions when we use it with

verbs that we’re very close to not

happening but it did happen over here a

reminder almost is used for things that

were very close to happening but did not

happen there’s another example I want to

show you here

from this one barely anyone came to the

conference I’ve used this here barely

anyone came to the conference with this

negative remember we use like some and

any with negatives and positives here

I’ve used barely anyone came to the

conference over here

I used almost everyone in this one so

you’ll notice that when we’re using this

kind of positive expression almost

everyone will use something like this

everyone or everybody however this one

will use anyone with or anybody barely

anybody it’s a more negative expression

so we don’t use barely everybody or

barely everyone please use barely anyone

here okay so this is a quick

introduction I think to a few different

ways that you can use barely and almost

and the basic differences between these

two if you have any questions or

comments or want to practice making some

sentences with this information please

feel free to do so in the comment

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you

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