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J'ai à peine dormi à cause du stress.

J'ai à peine dormi à cause du stress.
I barely slept because of the stress.
From Lesson 273:Adverb placement in compound tenses·French

Questions & Answers about J'ai à peine dormi à cause du stress.

Why is à peine placed between ai and dormi even though it is two words?
Even though à peine (barely/hardly) is a multi-word phrase, it functions like a common, short adverb. In compound tenses like the passé composé, these everyday adverbs are placed directly between the auxiliary verb (ai) and the past participle (dormi).
What does à peine mean literally?
The noun peine means sorrow, effort, or difficulty. So, the phrase à peine literally translates to something like "with difficulty" or "with effort," which is why it means "barely" or "hardly" in English.
Could I use parce que instead of à cause du to say "because" here?
No, because they are used differently. Parce que means "because" and must be followed by a full clause with a subject and a verb (like parce que j'étais stressé). À cause de means "because of" and is followed by a noun. Since stress is a noun, we must use à cause de.
Why is it du stress and not just de stress?
The phrase is à cause de + the noun. In French, nouns almost always need an article, so it's le stress (the stress). When the preposition de and the masculine article le meet, they always contract to form du.

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