‘Barely’

This is a quick post about the word ‘barely’. ‘Barely’ is a pretty useful English word, with a few different possible translations in Levantine.

يا دوب ya doob

This is probably the most multi-purpose and useful word for ‘barely’ or ‘hardly’. It’s not particularly transparent, and I have no idea of the etymology. It can take pronoun suffixes (ya doobni, ya doobak) or appear on its own. Sometimes it triggers subjunctive.

هي يا دوب عمرها سنتين
hiyye ya doob 3omrha santeen
She’s barely two years old [= her age is barely two years]

بتحس الدنيا كلا بتهجم عليك ، بالوقت يلي أنت فيه يا دوب إلك حيل تتنفس
bit7iss iddinye killa btihjom 3aleek bilwa2@t yalli inte fii ya doob 2ilak 7eel titnaffas
You feel like the whole world is coming at you when you barely have the energy to breathe

شب يا دوب بيعرف شكلي
shabb ya doob bya3ref shekli
A guy who barely even knows what I look like

صرت يا دوب عم نشوف حدا
Sir@t ya doob 3am shuuf 7ada
These days I hardly see anyone [= I’m barely seeing anyone]

دوبني واصل
doobni waaSel
I only just got here, I’ve barely just arrived

This is the simplest structure – ‘barely’ appears pretty much just as an adverb. However, you can also extend ‘barely’ sentences with a subclause. In these cases, whereas in English we typically use ‘when’ or ‘before’ in English, in Arabic the typical choice is إلا or إلا و:

يا دوب يخلص جملة الا وبيبدي واحدة جديدة
ya doob yekhalleS jemle 2ella w byibdi waa7de jdiide
He barely finishes one sentence before he starts another

يا دوبني وصلت ع البيت الا ومرتي حطتلي العشا
ya doobni waSSalt 3a-lbeet 2ella w-marti 7aTTetli i3asha
I’d barely got home when my wife put dinner out for me

ما… إلا maa… 2illa

This one is pretty straightforward, and has the variation ما لحق… إلا as well as variations on the 2illa (like 2illa w-). This is used in context like the following:

ما وصلت الا ودق الباب عليي
maa waSSal@t 3albeet 2illa wda22 ilbaab 3aleyyi
I’d barely got home when he knocked the door

ما وصلت البيت الا وصلتني بشارة مخالفة مسج ع التليفون
maa waSSalt ilbeet 2illa waSlitni bshaaret @mkhaalafe mesaj 3a ttelefoon
I’d barely got home when I got the happy news [that I had a] speeding fine alert on my phone [= than came good news of a fine as a message on my phone]

ما لحقت وصل ع البيت الا ودق الباب عليي
maa la77a2@t waSSel 3albeet 2illa wda22 ilbaab 3aleyyi
I’d barely got home when he knocked the door

In Palestinian and Jordanian, this construction requires a li7e2 (not la77a2) and typically triggers a participle:

ما بلحق يخلص جملة والا هو بادي وحدة جديدة
maa bil7a2 ykhalleS jumle willa huwwe baadi wa7de jdiide
He barely finishes a sentence before starting a new one

بالزور bizzoor

This one is a borrowing from Turkish zor ‘difficult’. It means ‘barely’ in the sense of ‘with great difficulty’:

بالزور استحملت حالي
bizzoor @sta7mal@t 7aali
I was barely able to contain myself

حتى نسيت كلمة المرور بالزور لتذكرتها
7atta nsiit kilmet ilmuruur, bizzoor latzakkartha
I even forgot the password, I only just managed to remember it [= barely la-I remembered it] (this structure of adverb plus la- covered in the PDF)

انجق anja2 (Lebanese)

This is a Lebanese synonym of ya doob, borrowed from Turkish ancak. You might have heard it in the Mashrou Leila song إني منيح.

كان عمرها ٢٠ سنة انجق
kaan 3emra 3ishriin sine 2anja2
She was barely 20 years old

أنجق ساعتين
anja2 saa3teen @b2iit
I barely stayed two hours