guère
See also: guere
French edit
Etymology edit
Inherited from Middle French guere(s), from Old French gaire(s), guaire(s) (“much”), from Frankish *waigaro (“much”). Compare Middle High German unweiger (“not much”), which corresponds closely to the French construct. Romance cognates are Occitan and Catalan gaire, Italian guari.
Pronunciation edit
Adverb edit
guère
- (with ne) hardly, barely
- Je ne comprends guère le français.
- I hardly understand French.
- Je ne vais guère mieux.
- I’m not much better.
- Pour me réchauffer, il n’y a guère qu’un pot de thé.
- To warm myself up, nothing beats a pot of tea.
- (literally, “...there's hardly anything but a pot of tea.”)
- 2008, Jean-Marc Moriceau, La bête du Gévaudan:
- Habitués à ne guère sortir d’un cercle de quelques paroisses environnantes, surtout en cette saison d’hiver, quelle raison auraient-ils eu à distinguer entre plusieurs animaux agresseurs ?
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
See also edit
Further reading edit
- “guère”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Picard edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Old French guerre, from Early Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish. Compare French guerre.
Noun edit
guère f (plural guères)
- (Nord and Pas-de-Calais) war