Degree: מאוד, קצת, די, לגמרי, בכלל | Hebrew Grammar

A degree word scales a predicate: it does not say what happened, it says how much. Hebrew's upward half — which intensifier sounds neutral, which sounds like a teenager — is a register question and lives on intensifiers. This page maps the whole scale, because the bottom of it behaves in a way the top does not: three of the commonest degree words in the language are polarity-sensitive — whether a לא is standing in the clause with them decides what they mean. One of them is wrong if you add it, one changes meaning entirely when you do, and one cannot appear without it.

The whole scale

Word	Reads	Force	Where it stands
לגמרי	legamréi	completely	after (צודק לגמרי, שכחתי לגמרי)
ממש	mamásh	really, genuinely	before
כל כך	kol kakh	so …	before
מאוד	me'ód	very	either side — see below
די	dai	fairly · enough	before
קצת	ktsat	a bit	before
בקושי	bekóshi	barely, hardly	before the verb
כמעט לא	kim'át lo	hardly any	before the verb — the לא is part of it
בכלל לא	bikhlál lo	not at all	before the predicate — needs the לא

מאוד is the only one with a choice of side, and both orders are current. The Academy prefers the post-posed one and edited writing follows it; the numbers and the source are on intensifiers, and there is no reason to decide it twice. Everything else in the table above is fixed where it sits.

אתה צודק לגמרי, אני אתקשר אליהם עכשיו.

atá tsodék legamréi, aní etkashér aleihém akhsháv

You're completely right — I'll call them now. (to a man)

היה ממש כיף, תודה שהזמנת אותנו.

hayá mamásh keif, todá shehizmánta otánu

That was really fun — thanks for having us. (to a man)

המבחן היה קשה מאוד, חצי מהכיתה נכשלה.

hamivkhán hayá kashé me'ód, khatsí mehakitá nikhshelá

The exam was very hard — half the class failed.

אני קצת עייפה, בואו נעשה את זה מחר.

aní ktsat ayefá, bó'u na'asé et ze makhár

I'm a bit tired — let's do it tomorrow. (f. speaker, to a group)

זה כל כך יקר שאף אחד לא קונה.

ze kol kakh yakár she'áf ekhád lo koné

It's so expensive that nobody buys it.

One item on that table is scaling and quantifying at the same time. די in front of an adjective is the degree word in the row above — די טוב, די מהר. In front of a noun it is not a degree word at all but a quantifier meaning enough, and Milog's entry gives exactly that: אין צורך בעוד, מספיק, "no need for more".

יש לנו די זמן, אל תמהרי.

yesh lánu dai zman, al temaharí

We've got enough time — don't rush. (to a woman; די + noun is the quantifier. In speech מספיק זמן is commoner)

💡

The disambiguator is grammatical, not tonal: די + noun = enough, די + adjective = fairly. Its other lives — the shout די!, and why די טוב is "pretty good" rather than "good enough" — are on מדי and מספיק.

The bottom of the scale is polarity-sensitive

Three degree words live down at the almost-nothing end, and they do not behave like the ones above them. Each one has a different relationship with לא, so take them one at a time rather than as a group.

בקושי is already negative in itself — it means barely, and it takes no לא. Piling one on inverts the sentence.

בקושי ישנתי הלילה, השכנים עשו מסיבה.

bekóshi yashánti haláyla, hashkhením asú mesibá

I barely slept last night — the neighbours had a party.

כמעט is the one that changes meaning with the לא rather than merely needing it. Milog glosses it plainly as nearly, and that is exactly the trap: כמעט נפלתי is "I almost fell" — I did not fall. Put a לא after it and the two negatives fold into hardly any, which is a real quantity: כמעט לא נשאר חלב means some milk is left, but barely.

כמעט נפלתי במדרגות, הרצפה רטובה.

kim'át nafálti bamadregót, haritspá retubá

I almost fell on the stairs — the floor's wet. (nothing happened)

כמעט לא נשאר חלב, תקנה בדרך חזרה.

kim'át lo nish'ár khaláv, tikné badérekh khazará

There's hardly any milk left — buy some on the way back. (to a man; some is left)

בכלל לא is the floor of the scale: not a bit, not at all. The לא is not optional, and the reason is the next section.

אני בכלל לא רעב, אכלתי לפני שעה.

aní bikhlál lo ra'év, akhálti lifnéi sha'á

I'm not hungry at all — I ate an hour ago. (m. speaker)

בכלל does two unrelated jobs

This is the item worth slowing down for, because nothing marks the difference except position and polarity. Milog lists the senses separately: לגמרי, כלל וכלל with negation (its example: אתה בכלל לא אוהב אותי), באופן כללי "in general" (בעולם בכלל, ובישראל בפרט), and בעצם — its example there being אתה בכלל מכיר אותי?

So the same four letters are a degree word at the bottom of a scale when a לא follows, and something closer to English actually or even when one does not. That second life is a discourse move rather than a degree, and it has its own page: בכלל.

רגע, אתה בכלל מכיר אותה?

réga, atá bikhlál makír otá?

Hang on — do you even know her? (to a man; Milog's בעצם sense, not a degree word at all)

שמת יותר מדי מלח, אי אפשר לאכול את זה.

sámta yotér midái mélakh, i efshár le'ekhól et ze

You've put in too much salt — this is inedible. (to a man; excess is a different axis — see מדי and מספיק)

💡

Degree and excess are different axes, and English hides it by using too for both (too big, too much). Hebrew keeps them apart: מאוד and קצת scale a predicate, while מדי and מספיק measure it against a threshold. The threshold pair is on מדי and מספיק.

Answering with a degree word alone

A degree word can be a whole answer in Hebrew, exactly as a bit or not at all can in English — and the polarity items keep their לא when they stand alone. The answer to "?אתה עייף" is בכלל לא, never בכלל on its own; the same goes for כמעט לא. בקושי answers by itself, because it never had a לא to keep.

בכלל לא, אני יכול לנהוג בלי בעיה.

bikhlál lo, aní yakhól linhóg bli be'ayá

Not at all — I can drive, no problem. (m. speaker)

קצת, אבל אני יכולה לחכות עד שכולם יגיעו.

ktsat, avál aní yekholá lekhakót ad shekulám yagí'u

A bit, but I can wait until everyone gets here. (f. speaker)

One more hand-off worth stating outright: the commonest degree error English speakers make is reaching for הרבה where the sentence needs מאוד, because English a lot covers both. הרבה quantifies nouns and verbs, מאוד scales adjectives, and they overlap less than English a lot suggests — the full account is on הרבה or מאוד?.

Common Mistakes

1. Using כמעט on its own to mean "hardly". English almost and hardly feel like neighbours; in Hebrew one of them is the same word plus a לא, and without it the event never happened.

❌ כמעט אכלתי היום

Incorrect as 'I hardly ate today' — as written it says you almost ate and then did not eat at all. Hardly any is כמעט לא: כמעט לא אכלתי היום.

✅ כמעט לא יצאנו מהבית כל השבוע, היה גשם בלי הפסקה.

kim'át lo yatsánu mehabáyit kol hashavúa, hayá géshem bli hafsaká

We've hardly been out of the house all week — it rained non-stop.

2. Dropping the לא after בכלל. English puts at all at the end of an already-negative sentence, so the Hebrew לא looks like it is doing a job that is already done.

❌ אני בכלל אוהב את זה

Incorrect as 'I don't like it at all' — with no לא, בכלל switches to its other sense and the sentence says something like 'actually, I do like it'. Not at all is בכלל לא: אני בכלל לא אוהב את זה.

✅ אני בכלל לא אוהב קפה, יש לך תה?

aní bikhlál lo ohév kafé, yesh lekhá te?

I don't like coffee at all — have you got any tea? (m. speaker, to a man)

3. Putting a לא with בקושי. Both words feel negative in English (I hardly didn't sleep is nonsense there too), but the pull comes from the כמעט לא pattern one row above.

❌ בקושי לא ישנתי

Incorrect as 'I hardly slept' — בקושי already carries the negative, so adding לא says you barely failed to sleep. Drop it: בקושי ישנתי.

✅ בקושי הגעתי בזמן, היה פקק ענק בכניסה לעיר.

bekóshi higáti bazmán, hayá pkak anák baknisá la'ír

I only just got there on time — there was a huge jam coming into the city.

4. Treating כמעט לא as "not at all". The two bottom rungs are one word apart and they make different claims: כמעט לא concedes a small amount, בכלל לא concedes none.

❌ כמעט לא ראיתי אותו

Incorrect as 'I didn't see him at all' — כמעט לא means you did see him, barely. For none at all the word is בכלל לא: בכלל לא ראיתי אותו.

✅ בכלל לא ראיתי אותו, הוא בטח נכנס מהצד השני.

bikhlál lo ra'íti otó, hu bétakh nikhnás mehatsád hashení

I didn't see him at all — he must have come in the other side.

Key Takeaways

The scale runs from לגמרי and ממש at the top, through מאוד and then די and קצת, down to בקושי, then כמעט לא, and בכלל לא at the floor. The bottom third behaves differently from the top.
Position is fixed for every item except מאוד: לגמרי follows, everything else precedes. The מאוד question is settled on intensifiers.
די + noun = enough — Milog's אין צורך בעוד, מספיק; די + adjective = fairly (די טוב).
בקושי is already negative and takes no לא. כמעט לא is not "almost not" but hardly any — a small amount, unlike בכלל לא, which is none — and it is a different claim again from bare כמעט, which says the thing did not happen at all.
בכלל has two unrelated jobs, separated only by whether a לא follows: the floor of the degree scale (בכלל לא), and Milog's בעצם sense — English actually, even.
Degree is not excess. מאוד and קצת scale; מדי and מספיק measure against a threshold, and that is a separate system.

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