بالكاد يكفي
“بالكاد يكفي” (би-ль-каад йякфий) — barely enough in Arabic. Phrase, level B1. Literally "barely suffices": barely enough money, barely enough time. The familiar "suffices" here with the intensifier "barely". In a live sentence: “المال بالكاد يكفي” — The money is barely enough. Written with the characters ب, ا, ل, ك, ا, د, ي, ك, ف, ي. A word from the everyday Arabic course, level B1.
In short
| Written in Arabic | بالكاد يكفي |
| Read in Latin letters | би-ль-каад йякфий |
| Translation | barely enough |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Literally "barely suffices": barely enough money, barely enough time. The familiar "suffices" here with the intensifier "barely"
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- المال بالكاد يكفيаль-мааль би-ль-каад йякфийThe money is barely enough
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “barely enough” in Arabic?
«بالكاد يكفي», read “би-ль-каад йякфий”. In a live sentence: “المال بالكاد يكفي” — The money is barely enough. Phrase, level B1; written with the characters ب, ا, ل, ك, ا, د, ي, ك, ف, ي.
How is “بالكاد يكفي” written in Latin letters?
би-ль-каад йякфий. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Literally "barely suffices": barely enough money, barely enough time. The familiar "suffices" here with the intensifier "barely". A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.