When reading an old or poorly printed document, you might find that you can "hardly" or "barely" make out the words. To express this in French, use the restrictive negation ne... guère.
Hardly and barely: "ne... guère"
Like ne... pas, the negative pair ne... guère wraps around the conjugated verb. It is a slightly formal or literary way to say "hardly," "barely," or "scarcely."
| This text is hardly legible. | Ce texte n'est guère lisible. |
| It's an edition whose typography is hardly legible. | C'est une édition dont la typographie n'est guère lisible. |
Blurry and pale texts
When typography is blurry (flou) or the ink is pale (pâle), you might barely perceive (apercevoir) the text.
| I can barely see the typography of this edition. | Je n'aperçois guère la typographie de cette édition. |
| We barely distinguish the pale commas. | Nous ne distinguons guère les virgules pâles. |
Missing the details
When a chapter (le chapitre) is illegible (illisible), you can scarcely spot a misprint (la coquille). Notice how ne... guère accommodates object and reflexive pronouns just like standard negation.
| This text is illegible and I can hardly see the letters. | Ce texte est illisible et je ne vois guère les lettres. |
| Do you remember this misprint in the chapter? I hardly remember it. | Est-ce que tu te souviens de cette coquille dans le chapitre ? Je ne m'en souviens guère. |
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