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Glite Dictionary
to barely hear

to barely hear

20 3.6
To be able to just catch a voice or sound with difficulty
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : apenas oír
  • I can barely hear my heart beating.

It's non functional but still works when you just go half a step up because it's so fast you can barely hear it.

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Examples

  • While the concert was loud, I could barely hear what my friend was saying.

  • I can barely hear you, Trevor.

    Scream 4 (2011)

  • Because I can barely hear you over the music.

    My Adventures with Santa (2019)

  • I can barely hear you.

    Short Cuts (1993)

  • I could barely hear you.

    Doctor Sleep (2019)

  • When he spoke, his voice was so low that I could barely hear him.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • The ocean was still so far away they could barely hear the surf.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Hal, I can barely hear you.

    The Burial (2023)

  • I yelled at him, but I could barely hear my own voice against the wind.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • But the sounds were muffled, and we could barely hear them.

    Fiction book (1998)

Antonyms

clearly
881 1.0

In a way that is easy to see, hear, or understand

How Well

to hear
∞ 1.0
to barely hear
20 3.6

Surface Forms

barely hear infinitive
barely heard past
barely heard past participle
barely hearing present participle
barely hears third person singular

Morphology

barely + hear

The meaning 'to hear with great difficulty' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'barely' (by a very small margin) with 'hear' (perceive sounds), yielding 'almost not hear.' This adverb+verb compositional pattern is common in English and in many other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

The phrase barely hear comes from joining the words barely, which means 'only just', and hear. Imagine a tiny whisper or a distant voice so quiet you can almost not hear it, and that's why it means 'to hear with great difficulty'.