Vocabulary: ONLY, JUST, BARELY, MERELY

If only I were a -- oh, hi. Sorry, I was just looking at a picture. I'll put that away.

If you've been to Toronto and you know Now magazine, and you know the back of Now magazine

-- I'm a bad, bad putty cat. Anyway, this lesson is about "only" and "just". I'm going

to give you two more words that we also use, but specifically "only" and "just". Why? Because

in English, these two words are used interchangeably. "Interchange" means "to change things", like

you take this one, you take that one: Change them in different places. All right. Between.

Because they have similar meanings, it's interchangeable. It doesn't matter that much. This lesson is

for -- in case you were bothered by that -- it's our special guy -- it's like the Oscars here

-- Allan from the Philippines wrote to us on Facebook, and I wrote it on my Chapters

receipt. Anyway, Allan wanted to know what is the difference, and when do you use them.

So why don't we go to the board and take a look.

Ah, Mr. E is here before me. I like making things rhyme. And Mr. E is saying, "James

merely has to do 1 lesson and he barely got it on the board. If only I were the teacher".

Now, if you read this, there seems to be a limitation or a limit to something. Right.

"Merely" means, like, just a small amount. "Barely": also small. And "only": seemingly

small. What's the difference? Let's go to the board.

"Just": "I'm just a gigolo, everywhere I go". David Lee, I'm stealing your stuff. Don't

sue me. Okay. When we say "just", we use usually -- in English, it means "exactly", "just".

"Just five people". "Just to the city", exactly. I'm lying a little bit. We also have "just",

and it can be used a little bit like "not that much". Right. "It's just two of us coming

for dinner." Not many of us. Exactly two, and it's not a lot. So you have to listen

to the context. Okay. When you hear "just", people are saying "exactly", and in some ways

they're saying, "and it's not a lot of stuff". Okay. "It's just two dollars". Well how much

is it exactly? Well it's two dollars. We don't need to say "just". We say it to say, "it's

not that much, relax". It's a tooney. All right. Go to Tim Hortons. Get your tooney,

which is two dollars. "It's just two dollars" -- not that much, and an exact amount.

There's another use for "just", okay? And it doesn't follow what the other words we're

going to do, but you should hear it or know what it means because it's used a lot for

law: "just". It's short for "justice". If something is not fair or not right, not correct,

we'll say it is "not just" -- older English. You'll hear it in law, but you won't really

hear people say it on the street. "It is not just. I did not get milk with my cookies!"

You know, but in a court case they'll go, "We need to be more just in our society",

or in university. So you'll see here: "it's not a just decision" -- it's not fair! It's

not right, it's not morally right. Morals, you know, like lying and stealing and cheating.

"He should go back to court." You hear it in court, okay?

I know you see "merely", but it will be merely a moment before we come back. We have to go

here. First the big guys, then the little guys. I said we'd start with "just", now we're

going to go to "only". Okay? "Only" has an adverb usage, and it means "limited to". "Only":

"Limited to a certain extent". And our example here: "There are only 100 tigers alive." It's

limited, right? Adjective use, adjective. "One of a kind". "Only one of a kind", right?

"He is an only child". It describes the child. How -- what kind of child? He's an "only"

child, like a "big child", a "small child", an "only child". Another use for it: a conjunction.

Okay. It's common. You may not see it as such because we use "and" a lot, but we use it

because we have this meaning of "limited to" -- I'm going really fast, so I'll slow down

so that not only I can understand myself, okay? "Limited to" plus "one of a kind". In

this case, it's not just "and", it's an exception, "except that". So we're saying the idea may

be similar, but there is a difference. So it's really useful when you're using your

English: a conjunction that gives you an exception. Nice, huh? And you thought it was "just" little

English we were doing or "only" English. In this case, I would say, she's like my girlfriend,

only better. You know, because, like, she's a girlfriend, and she's better, right? "Except

that". So that's how we use "only" and "just", okay? Those are the big guns, you know. Those

are the ones we use a lot. Now, we do have another one: "barely". "Barely"

also -- similarly -- or -- to "only" -- has an adverb use, and it means "only just" or

"almost not". Okay. What? Because we're using "only" here, right? Remember "limited to"

-- it has that idea -- and "almost not". Very close to not happening. So when you see "barely",

it almost has a negative thing, yeah, okay? "I barely have enough money for food." Almost

not enough money for food, all right? If the food is a hundred, maybe I have $100 and one

penny, one cent. One cent less or two cents less: no food for me. Okay. But it also has

another meaning: "a short time before". When someone says "barely" -- okay. This is good.

At work, sometimes I barely make it on time. If you talk to Mr. E, he goes, "You never

make it on time. Stop lying to the people. You're always late". Okay. But we're not talking

to Mr. E. He's busy complaining about something else. But sometimes I barely make it because

of the TTC. Anybody who's been to Toronto knows exactly what I mean. Hear that sound?

That's the police arresting another TTC driver for making Toronto citizens late. Anyway.

Okay. It means, you know, "a short time before", "a short time before". In this case, we have,

"They had barely escaped before the fire started", which means they got out of the door -- every

movie you've ever seen, you know, the guy jumps, and then the fire starts. Right. So

you're like, "aah". They "barely" escaped before the fire started, so "just" before

that. Cool. I said three words: one, two, three, but there

seems to be another one. If you're like me, and you want to be a bit of an ass -- oops,

I said it -- which would be a guy who wants to act big -- I don't -- but if you want to,

once in a while, impress your friends and your peers -- peers are people similar to

yourself in age, or education or position -- you can use "merely". "Merely" is "just/only".

Now you understand why I put it last, after, because you had to know "just" and "only"

to understand "merely". See, it was a -- there was a reason. "Merely" can mean "just", and

it means, in this case -- we say "just", "not that much", or --where was the other one -- yeah,

"not that much", or "exactly", in this case, "exactly". He is "merely" a child. He's a

child. That's it. "How can he do this, this Superman? He is merely a mortal". He's not

a mortal, he's Superman, okay? And then sometimes "merely" means "only", "only", right? "Limited

to", in this case. "I merely looked at his face, and it broke." No, I'm joking. Like,

sometimes you're, you know, looking at something, and you just touch it, and it breaks, and

you're like, "I didn't do it. I touched it. It broke. What am I supposed to do?" All right.

You could say, "I merely touched it. That's all I did. It was limited to a touch. It broke,

and it's not my fault". Okay. Or you could say, "he's merely an idiot". That's it folks.

Sorry, you shouldn't say that, but you could say that -- a nice insult.

But a quick recap, as we always do. Okay. "Just": What does "just" mean? "Not that much"

or "exactly". Sometimes the meanings go together, right? "It's just five minutes to my house".

It's exactly five minutes, and it's not that much. The two ideas go together. Okay. A little

bit more. "Only": "Only" means "limited to". It has an adjective function, adverb, and

conjunction function. "Barely", we got "barely": "only just" or "almost not". And finally,

"merely", which is "just" or "only". Was that good? Did you like it? I know, a little fast.

You're going to go where? To -- I know you're going to go there. You have to. It is not

merely a website. It is not only a website where you can learn English, it's just the

right place for you, see? Exactly, exactly. And where are you going to go, Mr. E? Sorry,

there's not going to be a mystery here. I have to write it. You're going to go to www.engvid.com

-- where "eng" stands for "English", and "vid" stands for "video" - www.engvid.com. Okay.

It's just a click away. And the price is free. Just free. It's good right? You won't be the

only one there. I promise.