Barely, Hardly, mafeesh 'fastly'

As an instructor, ana basma3 el gomlah dee kiteer:

"I studied hardly to pass the test."

Usdak eh? usdak inak inta 3abqaree fa neghit min gheir mozakra? wala usdak inak zakarit gamid (ya wad ya gamid inta) 3ashan tingah?

When you use the word 'hardly' ma3nitha inak ma 3amaltish maghoud. Look at these sentences:

*I hardly studied, but I passed. (taqreeban mazakirtish, bas I passed).
*I was sick and I hardly ate anything last night. (kont 3ayana, makaltish taqreeban eya haga).

Now look at these:

* I studied hard to pass the exam. (inta keda wad gada3 wa zakirt 'gamid' ya3nee kiteer!)
*I worked very hard last week so I'm taking a holiday for the next 10 years!

There r not many things that we do 'hard':

Try hard
Think hard
Work hard
play hard
search/look hard (dol ili gayeen 3ala balee delwaty)

But there r a lot of things we 'hardly' do: (hardly + verb)

* I hardly watch TV. (kadaba! da intee oudamu toul el nahar)
*I hardly eat. (kadaba! ma el tokhn da min eh?)
*I hardly talk to my friends. (kidb, kidb, kidb)

el kholasa: anything that you don't do a lot or ma 3amaltish maghoud fee, you can say 'hardly'.

Barely: nista3mel 'barely' lama 3ayzeen ne oul we just did something right before the time we were supposed to do it. And also we can use it like 'hardly'

I hardly watch TV or I barely watch TV....el itnin halween:)

But I can't say:

I hardly caught the bus. Ghalat, ghalat XX!
I have to say:

I barely caught the bus. (y3nee, ya dobak lehit el bus).
I barely had enough time to cook before my husband came back from work. (ya dobak kan 3andee time adbokh abl ma el beh ye sharaf!)

(mish ghalat inak teoul, "I hardly had enough time." Bas dee 3ayzah wahid ye koun a bit strong in English 3ashan ya3raf imta dee wa imta dee.)

Wa 3ashan nigeeb min el akher wa nekhalas badree 2day....mafeesh haga ismaha 'fastly'. Fe haga ismaha 'quickly'.

I drove my car quickly.
I drove my car fast.

He always thinks quickly.
He always thinks fast.