Learn Turkish: Otobüsü zor yakaladım. - I barely caught the bus.

It has the accusative case ending -ü because it is the specific object being caught. Whenever you do an action to a specific thing (like the bus, rather than just a bus), you must add this ending.

I learned that zor means "difficult" or "hard". Why does it mean "barely" here?

When zor is used right before a verb, it describes how the action was done (meaning it was done with difficulty). In English, we usually translate managing to do something "with difficulty" as "barely" doing it.

Why is zor placed where it is in the sentence?

In Turkish, words that describe an action (adverbs) are typically placed immediately before the verb they describe. Since the verb yakaladım is at the end of the sentence, zor naturally goes right before it.

How is the verb yakaladım built?

It starts with the verb root yakala (catch). Then we add the past tense suffix -dı and the personal ending -m (I). Together, yakala-dı-m literally means "I caught".