Hardly in Different Languages
Discover 'Hardly' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Hardly
Afrikaans skaars | ||
Albanian vështirë se | ||
Amharic በጭራሽ | ||
Arabic بالكاد | ||
Armenian դժվար թե | ||
Assamese খুব কম | ||
Aymara ch'amapuniwa | ||
Azerbaijani çətinliklə | ||
Bambara gɛlɛnman | ||
Basque nekez | ||
Belarusian наўрад ці | ||
Bengali কষ্টে | ||
Bhojpuri मुसकिल से | ||
Bosnian jedva | ||
Bulgarian едва ли | ||
Catalan difícilment | ||
Cebuano lisud | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 几乎不 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 幾乎不 | ||
Corsican à pena | ||
Croatian jedva | ||
Czech stěží | ||
Danish næsten | ||
Dhivehi ވަރަށް މަދުން | ||
Dogri मसां-मसां | ||
Dutch nauwelijks | ||
English hardly | ||
Esperanto malfacile | ||
Estonian vaevalt | ||
Ewe sesẽna ŋutɔ | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) bahagya | ||
Finnish tuskin | ||
French à peine | ||
Frisian amper | ||
Galician dificilmente | ||
Georgian ძნელად | ||
German kaum | ||
Greek μετά βίας | ||
Guarani hasýpe | ||
Gujarati ભાગ્યે જ | ||
Haitian Creole diman | ||
Hausa da wuya | ||
Hawaiian paʻakikī | ||
Hebrew בְּקוֹשִׁי | ||
Hindi मुश्किल से | ||
Hmong kog | ||
Hungarian alig | ||
Icelandic varla | ||
Igbo siri ike | ||
Ilocano apaman | ||
Indonesian hampir tidak | ||
Irish ar éigean | ||
Italian appena | ||
Japanese ほとんどありません | ||
Javanese angel | ||
Kannada ಕಷ್ಟದಿಂದ | ||
Kazakh әрең | ||
Khmer ស្ទើរតែ | ||
Kinyarwanda biragoye | ||
Konkani सामकीं | ||
Korean 거의 | ||
Krio nɔ | ||
Kurdish nîne | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) بە سەختی | ||
Kyrgyz араң | ||
Lao ເກືອບບໍ່ | ||
Latin vix | ||
Latvian diez vai | ||
Lingala ata moke te | ||
Lithuanian vargu ar | ||
Luganda si buli kaseera | ||
Luxembourgish kaum | ||
Macedonian тешко | ||
Maithili मुश्किल सं | ||
Malagasy mihitsy | ||
Malay hampir tidak | ||
Malayalam പ്രയാസമില്ല | ||
Maltese bilkemm | ||
Maori whakauaua | ||
Marathi महत्प्रयासाने | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯋꯥꯔꯞꯅ | ||
Mizo khat | ||
Mongolian бараг биш | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ခဲယဉ်း | ||
Nepali मुश्किलले | ||
Norwegian neppe | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) nkomwe | ||
Odia (Oriya) କ୍ୱଚିତ୍ | | ||
Oromo akka hintaanetti | ||
Pashto په کلکه | ||
Persian به ندرت | ||
Polish ledwie | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) dificilmente | ||
Punjabi ਮੁਸ਼ਕਿਲ ਨਾਲ | ||
Quechua ñakayta | ||
Romanian cu greu | ||
Russian едва | ||
Samoan faigata | ||
Sanskrit नैव | ||
Scots Gaelic cha mhòr | ||
Sepedi ga se gantši | ||
Serbian једва | ||
Sesotho ho hang | ||
Shona kwete | ||
Sindhi شايد ئي | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) අමාරුයි | ||
Slovak ťažko | ||
Slovenian komaj | ||
Somali si dhib leh | ||
Spanish apenas | ||
Sundanese boro | ||
Swahili vigumu | ||
Swedish knappast | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) mahirap | ||
Tajik базӯр | ||
Tamil அரிதாகத்தான் | ||
Tatar .әр сүзнең | ||
Telugu అరుదుగా | ||
Thai แทบจะไม่ | ||
Tigrinya ዳርጋ | ||
Tsonga a swi talangi | ||
Turkish zorlukla | ||
Turkmen kyn | ||
Twi (Akan) ntaa nsi | ||
Ukrainian навряд чи | ||
Urdu مشکل سے | ||
Uyghur تەس | ||
Uzbek deyarli emas | ||
Vietnamese khó khăn | ||
Welsh prin | ||
Xhosa akunjalo | ||
Yiddish קוים | ||
Yoruba o fee | ||
Zulu neze |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | "Skaars" can also refer to a type of wooden bowl, a lack of something, or a small amount of something. |
| Albanian | "Vështirë se" in Albanian is cognate with "vestirja" (dress), and thus originally meant "with difficulty in dressing". In its current use, it implies the unlikelihood of something happening, like "with difficulty in believing". |
| Amharic | The word "በጭራሽ" also means "by hand" or "manually". |
| Arabic | "بالكاد" in Arabic is originally an adverb of place meaning "at the very brink" but shifted in meaning to "just". |
| Azerbaijani | "çətinliklə" derives from Proto-Turkic "*ket- " (to be difficult, to lack) and Proto-Altaic "*kekt" (be difficult; want; need). |
| Basque | The Basque word "nekez" is derived from the Proto-Basque word "*neger-," and the word also means "barely" or "scarcely". |
| Bengali | The word "কষ্টে" also means "with difficulty" or "with great effort" in Bengali. |
| Bosnian | Jedva is of Slavic origin and its root means "only enough," which in some dialects also implies hardship. |
| Bulgarian | In Bulgarian, "едва ли" (edva li) can also mean "unlikely" or "it is doubtful that." |
| Catalan | It comes from the Latin phrase "difficilis mente", meaning "difficult to understand". |
| Cebuano | The Cebuano word lisud can also refer to a difficult person or situation and can be used in a similar way to the English word "tough." |
| Chinese (Simplified) | '几乎不' means 'almost not' in Chinese and is used to indicate a near-zero probability of something happening. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 幾乎不 is also used to indicate the sense of "nearly not" |
| Corsican | Corsican "à pena" comes from Latin "poena" and also means "pain" or "punishment". |
| Croatian | The word 'jedva' derives from the Proto-Slavic word *jedvъ 'difficulty, trouble' and is cognate with the Russian word едва (edva) 'hardly' and the Polish word jedwab 'silk'. |
| Czech | The word "stěží" is derived from the Old Czech word "těžiti", meaning "to obtain with difficulty". |
| Danish | The word "næsten" is also used as an adverb meaning "almost", but its original meaning is "nearly". |
| Dutch | The Dutch word "nauwelijks" originates from the Middle Dutch "nauwelike" meaning "exactly", "precisely", from "nau" (narrow) and "like" (similar). |
| Esperanto | The Esperanto word "malfacile" derives from the Latin "malefacere", meaning "to do evil" or "to harm". |
| Estonian | "Vaevalt" is cognate with the Finnish word "vaiva", which means "effort" or "hardship". |
| Finnish | "Tuskin" is the negation of "kyllä" in the partitive plural form (kyllä = yes, kyllä + partitive singular suffix -i = kyllin = enough, kyllin + partitive plural suffix -n = tuskin). |
| French | In Old French, "à peine" referred to physical or legal suffering, a meaning preserved in the modern term "peine". |
| Frisian | The word "amper" can also mean "slightly" or "a little bit". |
| Galician | "Dificilmente" is a Galician word with a Latin origin and can also mean "difficult" or "with difficulty". |
| Georgian | The Georgian word "ძნელად" can also mean "difficult" or "difficultly". |
| German | "Kaum" originally meant "scarcely" or "barely" and is derived from the Old High German "chûmo," which itself comes from the Proto-Indo-European root "kem" meaning "to cover, hide, or conceal." |
| Greek | The Greek phrase 'μετά βίας' literally translates to 'with force', hinting at the strenuous effort put into an action. |
| Haitian Creole | Diman is also used to express improbability or negation. |
| Hausa | "Da wuya" literally means "in the night", reflecting the difficulty of seeing or doing things at night. |
| Hawaiian | The Hawaiian word "paʻakikī" also means "difficult" or "stubborn," reflecting its root "pāki" ("firm, hard"). |
| Hebrew | The word "בקושי" also means "with difficulty" or "with reluctance." |
| Hindi | The word "मुश्किल से" is derived from the Persian word "مشکل" (mushkil), meaning "difficult" or "hard to do." |
| Hmong | The Hmong word "kog" also means "almost", "scarcely", and "barely". |
| Hungarian | The word "alig" also means "scarcely" or "barely" in English. |
| Icelandic | 'Varla' is an Icelandic word of Old Norse origin used in the sense of 'hardly' or 'with difficulty'. |
| Igbo | 'Siri ike' has a root word 'ike' which means strength, so 'siri ike' could be translated as 'with enough strength' when used affirmatively. |
| Indonesian | The words 'hampir' and 'tidak' are combined to mean 'almost not' or 'hardly'. |
| Italian | The word "appena" in Italian can also mean "recently" or "just now" in some contexts. |
| Japanese | "ほとんどありません" is a negative form of "ほとんどあります" meaning "there are a lot," and thus originally meant "there are few." |
| Javanese | The word "angel" in Javanese can also mean a kind of shrimp known as the mantis shrimp or stomatopod. |
| Kannada | The word "ಕಷ್ಟದಿಂದ" also means "with difficulty" or "despite difficulties." |
| Kazakh | The word "әрең" can also refer to the concept of "scarcely" or "just barely". |
| Khmer | The word 'ស្ទើរតែ' originally meant 'almost' but over time came to primarily mean 'hardly'. |
| Korean | The word "거의" can also mean "almost" or "nearly". |
| Kurdish | The word "nîne" is thought to be derived from the Persian word "nah", meaning "no" or "not". It can also mean "not yet" or "almost". |
| Kyrgyz | The word "араң" can also mean "almost not" or "with difficulty". |
| Latin | The word "vix" in Latin originates from the Proto-Indo-European "*weik-s," meaning "separate" or "divide." |
| Latvian | The word "diez vai" also means "maybe" or "probably" in Latvian. |
| Lithuanian | Vargu is an old Lithuanian form of varguolis, which meant "poor man", "vagabond", "beggar". |
| Luxembourgish | The word "kaum" can also mean "barely" or "scarcely". |
| Macedonian | The word "тешко" can also mean "difficult" or "heavy" in Macedonian. |
| Malagasy | In Malagasy, «mihitsy» originally meant «in vain», similar to its Proto-Malayo-Polynesian root "mi(n)hit". Later it took the meaning «just barely». |
| Malay | "Hampir tidak" derives from "hampir" and "tidak", meaning "almost not". |
| Malayalam | "പ്രയാസമില്ല" in Malayalam comes from the Prakrit word "पयासो" meaning "effort" with the negative prefix "പ്ര" but also means "without trouble" as opposed to its literal meaning of "no effort". |
| Maltese | In colloquial Maltese, "bilkemm" can also be used to mean "almost" or "nearly". |
| Maori | Whakauaua is also an archaic term for 'very much', and is the opposite of 'noa' ('very little'). |
| Marathi | A compound word meaning 'with great difficulty', 'with great effort' or 'hardly' and is formed by combination of 'महत्' meaning 'great' and 'प्रयास' meaning 'effort' |
| Mongolian | The Mongolian word "бараг биш" also means "not at all" or "absolutely not". |
| Nepali | The word "मुश्किलले" is derived from the Sanskrit word "मुश्किल", meaning "difficult". |
| Norwegian | Neppe is derived from the Old Norse "neppa," meaning "cut short". It has also been used figuratively to mean "scarcely" or "hardly" since the 1400s. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word 'nkomwe' can also refer to a type of traditional fermented maize porridge in Nyanja. |
| Pashto | په کلکه (hardly) is related to Pashto word "کله" (head). The original meaning is "to the extent of one's head", which refers to a small or limited amount. |
| Persian | The Persian word "به ندرت" derives from the Arabic "ندرت" (rarity), and also carries the connotation of "scarcely" or "infrequently". |
| Polish | The word "ledwie" in Polish originally meant "only" or "scarcely". |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | "Dificilmente" derives from the Latin "difficilis" (hard, difficult) and also means "with difficulty" or "infrequently". |
| Punjabi | The word "ਮੁਸ਼ਕਿਲ ਨਾਲ" is derived from the Persian word "mushkil", meaning "difficult". Another possible origin is the Sanskrit word "mūshkala", meaning "a little mouse". |
| Romanian | "Cu greu" is also used in Romanian to mean "with difficulty" or "with great effort." |
| Russian | "Едва" is a Russian word meaning "hardly" or "barely", but it can also mean "at first" or "at the moment". |
| Samoan | The term "faigata" in Samoan is derived from the root word "fa'i" meaning "to forbid" or "to prevent". |
| Scots Gaelic | Literally translates to "great difficulty" or "very much". Often used ironically when someone is doing something easily. |
| Serbian | The Serbian word 'једва' is derived from the Proto-Slavic word *jьdьva, which also means 'scarcely' or 'barely'. |
| Sesotho | The word "ho hang" in Sesotho can also mean "not just yet" or "only just now". |
| Shona | The word "kwete" can also mean "very little" or "a small amount" in Shona. |
| Sindhi | "شايد ئي" means "hardly" in Sindhi and is borrowed from Persian and Urdu. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | Sinhala word "අමාරුයි" (amāruyi) also means "difficult to carry", while the Tamil word "அமாறு" (amāṟu) means "to carry heavy objects". |
| Slovak | "Ťažko" also means "hard" in Slovak, which is used in names like Ťažký Dvorec (Heavy Manor). |
| Slovenian | Komaj is a derivative of the Proto-Slavic word *komъ, meaning 'little', 'hardly', or 'barely' |
| Somali | The Somali word "si dhib leh" can also mean "without issue" or "uncomplicated". |
| Spanish | The word "apenas" is used in other contexts to mean "only" or "barely", and it traces its roots back to the Latin "ad pedem", which means "at the foot". |
| Sundanese | The etymology of the Sundanese word "boro" is similar to that of the Indonesian word "apalagi", which also means "hardly" or "not to mention" |
| Swahili | The word “vigumu” is derived from the verb “kuwa gumu”, meaning “to be difficult”. |
| Swedish | The word "knappast" is derived from the Old Norse word "knappr" meaning "tight, narrow, short". |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | "Mahirap " originally meant "difficult" or "bad situation", but has come to mean “hardly" or "not likely" in everyday usage. |
| Tajik | The word "базӯр" (bazūr) in Tajik can also mean "difficult" or "troublesome". |
| Telugu | The word 'అరుదుగా' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'अर्', meaning 'few', and is used to indicate scarcity or infrequency. |
| Thai | แทบจะไม่ is derived from the word แทบ, which means close to a certain point or degree. |
| Turkish | The Turkish word "zorlukla" ultimately derives from the Proto-Turkic word *zor*, meaning "force" or "difficulty" |
| Ukrainian | The word "навряд чи" in Ukrainian shares the same etymology with "навряд" meaning "unlikely". Thus, the literal translation is "on hardly". |
| Urdu | The Urdu word "مشکل سے" is cognate with the Sanskrit word "दुष्करतः" (duṣkaraḥ) meaning "with difficulty". |
| Uzbek | The Uzbek word "deyarli emas" can be literally translated to "it's almost impossible". It is used to express strong denial, as in "It's hardly true". |
| Vietnamese | In Vietnamese "khó khăn" is often used to mean "poor" in a material sense, but it also means "difficult" or "hard". |
| Welsh | In Welsh 'prin' also means 'before'. |
| Xhosa | 'Akujalo' shares it etymology with the noun 'kujala', meaning 'to illuminate', with the prefix 'a' having an adverbial force |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "קוים" originated in the biblical Hebrew word "קום" (qum), meaning "to rise up" or "to stand". |
| Yoruba | In Yoruba, the word “o fee” can also mean “to be difficult” or “to be stubborn”. |
| Zulu | The word 'neze' means both 'hardly', and 'only just' when used in the sense of something being 'on the verge' of happening. |
| English | The word “hardly” is derived from the Old English “hard” meaning “bold”, “strong”, or “difficult”, and “lic” meaning “indeed”, “truly” or “strongly”. |