Enough

[ThomasK]

After my question on "too (much)" I'd like to enquire about the translation of "enough/ sufficient" in your language. (BTW: some contributors referred to it while answering the questions about "too (much)"...).

I suggest we start from these uses:
enough/ sufficient (satisfactory???)
(a) ADJ? >> enough books [+ countable], enough milk [- countable] / sufficient
(b) with ADV >> you have worked long enough/ *enough long [* = unacceptable] / ?sufficiently long?
(c) ?PRED? + prep? >> Enough of this! / This will do /??? --- Probably an ellipsis...
(c') DO + prep. >> I have had enough of this --- Of course there are lexical variants of this but let us focus on expressions containing something like enough... So NOT "I am sick/ tired of it", etc.
(d) PRED >> This is enough/ sufficient / This will do!

Feel free to add more uses (d, e, ...)...

Dutch: genoeg/ voldoende (to be sufficient - volstaan) [vol = full]
(a) genoeg/ voldoende boeken, melk [no declination]
(b) lang genoeg/ *genoeg lang
(c) Genoeg (?hiervan?)! Dit volstaat!
(c') Ik heb er genoeg van
(c') Dit volstaat!

 

[Yendred]

French:

assez [ase] / suffisant (adj.) / suffisamment (adv.) / suffire (verb)
(a) assez de livres (countable) / assez de lait (uncountable) / suffisamment de...
(b) tu as travaillé assez longtemps / suffisamment longtemps
(c) assez ! / ça suffit !
(c') j'en ai assez de cela
(d) c'est suffisant

For (d), "c'est assez" is correct, but we avoid it because of the homophony with cétacé (cetacean), which is a well known pun

(this is the logo of the association C'est assez ! involved against captivity of cetaceans, and which has used the pun as its name)

assez comes from Latin ad satis, which literally means "up to satisfaction".

 

[apmoy70]

Greek:

(a) ADJ >> «αρκετός, -τή, -τό» [ar.ceˈtɔs] (masc.), [ar.ceˈti] (fem.), [ar.ceˈtɔ] (neut.) --> sufficient, enough < Byzantine Gr. deverbative adj. «ἀρκετός» --> sufficient, enough < Classical v. «ἀρκέω/ἀρκῶ» ărkéō (uncontracted)/ărkô (contracted) --> to ward off, defend, suffice (PIE *h₂erḱ- to hold, contain cf Hitt. h̬ark- to hold, have, Lat. arcēre, to enclose, keep off).
(b) ADV >> «αρκετά» [ar.ceˈta] --> sufficiently, fairly which is the adjective «αρκετός», adverbialized.
(c) A simple «αρκετά!» suffices.
(c') idem
(d) «Αυτό αρκεί» [afˈtɔ arˈci] --> it/this suffices

 

[Yendred]

«ἀρκέω/ἀρκῶ» ărkéō (uncontracted)/ărkô (contracted) --> to ward off, defend, suffice (PIE *h₂erḱ- to hold, contain cf Hitt. h̬ark- to hold, have, Lat. arcēre, to enclose, keep off).

This is a rich and interesting etymology.
Latin arcēre (to defend) has given exercitus (army) - see for example the Spanish ejercito and Italian esercito - and by extension, all the lexical field around exercise, exert...
arcēre also means to enclose/to lock up, and has given the lexical field of coercion, coercive...

 

[Dymn]

Catalan:
prou, suficient
a) ADJ: prou llibres, prou llet (but as I said in the other thread it's quite common to pluralize it: prous llibres, there's even a feminine form: prouta, but it's dialectal)
b) ADV: prou bé ("well enough", I use another example because we wouldn't use an adverb in your context)
c) Prou! or Ja n'hi ha prou! ("there's already enough of it")
c') Ja en tinc prou ("I have already enough of it")
d) Ja està bé ("it's already good"), I would avoid prou which may come across as rude

 

[Yendred]

Catalan:
prou

prou is also an old French word to mean enough/much. It has disappeared from the language as is, but it is still used in the idiomatic expression "peu ou prou" which means more or less.
It seems to be cognate with "profit", itself coming from Latin prosum (to be useful).

How do you pronounce prou in Catalan?

 

[Dymn]

How do you pronounce prou in Catalan?

/pɾɔu̯/

 

[Penyafort]

It seems to be cognate with "profit", itself coming from Latin prosum (to be useful).

Exactly, from the third person: prode est 'it is useful, it is good enough'.

Prou or either the variant pro is of common use in Catalan, Occitan and Aragonese. However, I'm personally noticing a lesser use of it among the younger generations in Catalan, reducing the use of it to some contexts.

In Old Catalan, it was also regarded as a noun, whereas nowadays only profit is used.

In Spanish, the RAE dictionary considers the noun pro in los pros y los contras (pros and cons) as coming from prode too, but that one is likelier to come from a use of the Latin pro 'in favour of', as in other languages.

 

[ThomasK]

French:
(d) c'est suffisant

For (d), "c'est assez" is correct, but we avoid it because of the homophony with cétacé (cetacean), which is a well known pun

(this is the logo of the association C'est assez ! involved against captivity of cetaceans, and which has used the pun as its name)

The sympathy for the cetaceans must be huge! ;-) And one last note: (d) is clearly different, also in Dutch. I suppose "suffisant" (and the equivalents in other languages) is too ;-) positive, though I would have expected assez in (d)? Isn't "suffisant" somehow awkward in that sentence? The phenomenon (avoidance of "assez") must be fairly recent, or isn't it?

a) ADJ: prou llibres, prou llet (but as I said in the other thread it's quite common to pluralize it: prous llibres, there's even a feminine form: prouta, but it's dialectal)
b) ADV: prou bé ("well enough", I use another example because we wouldn't use an adverb in your context)
c) Prou! or Ja n'hi ha prou! ("there's already enough of it")
c') Ja en tinc prou ("I have already enough of it")
d) Ja està bé ("it's already good"), I would avoid prou which may come across as rude

When could you use 'sufficient' in those sentences? I think the "assez/prou" is often fairly emotional and somehow related to "too much", semantically and even emotionally: when one uses the one, one could use the other as well, I guess...
Any derivations of "prou" aoart from "profit"?

 

[Dymn]

When could you use 'sufficient' in those sentences?

Well now I notice I should have translated your last example literally. If you want to use it predicatively you should use "suficient", or at least it sounds better to me: "és suficient" instead of "és prou"

As for the other examples, you can say "suficients llibres", "suficient llet", "suficientment bé", but in most cases it would be non-idiomatic, although some people may use it because that's what Spanish does as @Penyafort mentions.

 

[symposium]

In Italian, as in many other Romance languages, we have the verb "bastare" which means "to be enough": so we often employ that verb and its derivatives. As for your examples:
A) Abbastanza libri/ abbastanza latte (but other common ways to say it would be: un numero sufficiente di libri/ una quantità sufficiente di latte (a sufficient number of books/ a sufficient quantity of milk).
B) Hai lavorato abbastanza/ abbastanza a lungo.
Abbastanza di (enough of) is only employed when you want to say you're sick/ tired of something, tipically in the expression "ne ho abbastanza di... = I've had enough of...".
Enough! = Basta!
It's enough that.... = Basta che....
Sufficientemente (sufficiently) is slightly formal and not so widely used in everyday conversations, I guess.

 

[Awwal12]

In Russian:
1. adv. достаточно (dostátochno), from достаток (dostátok) - "lack of need for sth", in turn from the archaic meaning of the verbs достать (dostát', perf.) and доставать (dostavát', imerf.), "to reach", here - "to be sufficient" (impersonal, +gen. for the main object and +dat. for the benefactor, i.e. "somebofy will have enough of something" transfers to "it will reach of something to somebody").
2. adv. хватит (khvátit), with infinitive phrases only (~enough V-ing!), from the future 3p.sg. form of perf. хватить (khvatít') - "to be sufficient" (closely related to "to grasp"). Note that the latter verb is used frequently when English uses "to have enough sth".
3. adv. довольно (dovól'no), literally "gladly" (in the modern Russian; the actual etymological link is almost reverse, though, with everything going back to the expression "to one's will (i.e. until one's will will be fulfilled)"). Also works as "pretty + adj.". In the meaning "enough" it has a limited use (and is always slightly bookish).

Enough books, enough milk > Достаточно книг (dostátochno kníg, "enough of-books"), достаточно молока (dostátochno moloká, "enough of-milk").
You have worked long enough > Ты проработал достаточно долго (ty prorabótal dostátochno dólgo, "you have-worked-through enough longly"); the word order will be influenced by the pragmatics.
Enough of this! > Хватит! (Khvátit!) / Довольно! (Dovól'no!)
I have had enough of this > difficult to translate literally. Cf., however, "it was enough for me" - мне этого хватило (mné étovo khvatílo, "to-me of-this (it) has-sufficed"); see above for the remarks about the verb.
This is enough/ sufficient > Этого хватит/достаточно (Étovo khvátit/dostátochno, "of-this (it) will-suffice / of-this (it is) sufficient").

 

[Yendred]

It seems nobody mentioned Spanish yet
So let me try, I'll leave it to Spanish natives to correct it if needed and add commentaries.

¡basta! / bastante / suficiente (adj.) / suficientemente (adv.)
(a) (+noun) bastantes/suficientes libros (countable) / bastante/suficiente leche (uncountable)
(a') (+adj) bastante/suficientemente bueno (good enough)
(b) has trabajado bastante/suficiente tiempo
(c) ¡basta!
(c') ya tengo bastante/suficiente de esto
(d) eso basta / eso es suficiente

 

[Welsh_Sion]

Welsh:

Base form - digon. /'dIgon/

(a) digon! = enough! ( = basta!)

(b) digon o lyfrau = enough of books = enough books. (Older/poetic form: llyfrau digon - books enough. I think this latter form could also rxist in 'older' English

(c) rwyt ti wedi gweithio'n ddigon hir = art thou after working PRED ('in the state of') [Soft Mutation] enough long = Thou hast been working long enough. (Apologies for the 'older' English translation, but without using another European language there is no way of showing that ti = 2nd pers. informal sing.)

(d i) digon o hyn! = Enough of this!
(d ii) dyna ddigon! = That's + Soft Mutation enough = Said to a child with whom you've lost patience when their having a tantrum. (Ca suffit in French )
(d iii) digon yw/ydi digon! = Enough is enough!

(e) dw i wedi cael digon ar hyn = Am I after receiving enough on this = I have had enough of this

(f) mae hynna'n ddigon = Is that PRED + Soft Mutation enough = That's enough

(g) digonedd = an ambundance

(h i) hen ddigon = old + Soft Mutation enough = quite enough ( Like d ii above)
(h ii) digon hen = enough old = old enough (As in 'old enough to buy alcohol)

Turning to legal English, don't forget that in English Contract Law, 'sufficient consideration' is not synonymous with 'adequate consideration'.

And from Yiddish: 'Enough already!' (Again, like dii)

 

[ThomasK]

Thanks, everyone! Just one hint: if you could put the translations/equivalents in bold, as some of us do spontaneously, it helps a lot. Thanks in advance!

Well now I notice I should have translated your last example literally. If you want to use it predicatively you should use "suficient", or at least it sounds better to me: "és suficient" instead of "és prou"

As for the other examples, you can say "suficients llibres", "suficient llet", "suficientment bé", but in most cases it would be non-idiomatic, although some people may use it because that's what Spanish does as @Penyafort mentions.

This is strange to me, or at least to some extent. Could the difference be the emotional impact of one of the variants (the basic one???)? One less emotional than the other? In Dutch: "Dat volstaat" might be less emotional than "Het is genoeg", but we could not express anger with "Dat is voldoende"? Very strange somehow...

@symposium : no di needed after "abbastanza" in (1), and yet no declination either (-anzi, -anze), But the di appears when things (...) become emotional... Good Lord, that is the case in Dutch too, I suddenly notice. - So here is the emotional impact again. But you have no descriptive variant such as "suffi...", nothing at all?

@Awwal12 :
- can /dostatochno/ be analysed into - just guessing -/dosta-tochno/ perhaps (lack of - need)? Google gives "much-plain/usual".
- Isn't (3) something like: "I don't bother, do as you please"?
- Do I see some kind of genitive appear?
Just BTW: in all those cases the main focus is how you convey the idea/concept idiomatically. The link with the word "enough" is secondary: it is just interesting to see whether you can use any "enough-word" in that context...

I'll focus on the others (Spanish, Welsh, ...) later today, I hope...

 

[Awwal12]

- can /dostatochno/ be analysed into - just guessing -/dosta-tochno/ perhaps (lack of - need)?

The adverb "dostatochno" is homonymous to and originating from the short single neuter adjective "dostatochno", which transparently originates from the noun "dostatok" (cf. P-Sl. *dostatŭkĭno), which is formed with the "-(o)k" suffix from the verb "dostat'" ("to reach", "to acquire"), which ultimately decomposes as do-[sta-t'] ("do-" stands for "to" (< PIE *do), indicating reaching the limit, and "stat'" is the old verb meaning "to stand" > "to become"). Regarding "dostat'", cf. the verb "dobýt'" (also "acquire") with the same morphological model (from "byt'" - "to be").

- Isn't (3) something like: "I don't bother, do as you please"?

Not quite. "Dovol'no" in the meaning "enough" must have got de-etymologized long ago, it's basically a word on its own and isn't associated directly with satisfaction or anything like that anymore.

- Do I see some kind of genitive appear?

Yes. All the related verbs and predicatives ("достаточно" and "довольно" can be classified as such parts of speech in certain grammatical contexts) feature impersonal government, with one argument being the object in the singular or plural genitive in the partitive meaning (something which is enough, will suffice etc.), and another being the benefactor in the dative case (someone who is affected); the subject slot is taken by the singular neuter zero (which is pretty convenient, taking the great polysemy of "хватить" or "достать" into account) - unlike English or German, Russian syntax doesn't demand dummy subjects to appear overtly (although that virtual zero subject still does have the cathegories of number, person and gender, which are reflected in the head verb).

 

[Yendred]

Spanish and Italian basta have an interesting etymology: they come from Latin bastare meaning "to form the basis". Some also make it close to bene stare = to stand well.
bastare itself comes from Ancient Greek βαστάζειν = to lift/to raise/to keep up.
So this all fits together...

 

[Dymn]

This is strange to me, or at least to some extent. Could the difference be the emotional impact of one of the variants (the basic one???)?

I think it’s just syntactical, prou doesn’t fit well as a predicative adjective:

“Listening is not enough”
Escoltar no és suficient.
Éscoltar no és prou.

The “emotional” and “non-emotional” way (for example in the first one you’re complaining about someone’s behaviour, in the second one someone’s pouring you a drink and you just tell them it’s enough) would be:

Prou! or Ja n’hi ha prou!
Ja està bé. Ja està.
(as in c and d) #5

I think both suficient and prou could sound rude in the second case.

(a) (+noun) bastantes/suficientes libros (countable) / bastante/suficiente leche (uncountable)
(a') (+adj) bastante/suficientemente bueno (good enough)
(b) has trabajado bastante/suficiente tiempo

I would say:

a) Adjective (+noun): suficientes libros, los libros suficientes / suficiente leche, la leche suficiente
b) Adverb (+adj or +adv): lo bastante bueno, (lo) suficientemente bueno
b’) Adverb (standalone): has trabajado (lo) suficiente

I would translate bastantes libros and bastante bueno (without lo) as “quite a few books”, “quite/pretty good”.

 

[Yendred]

Thanks for precisions Dymn

I wonder about the difference between "has trabajado suficiente" and "has trabajado suficiente tiempo".
Don't they match, respectively, "you have worked enough" and "you have worked long enough"? Or is there an idiomatical aspect I miss?
(In French it would be "tu as travaillé suffisamment" and "tu as travaillé suffisamment longtemps")

The first ones can refer to the time devoted to work, but also to the intensity and efficiency, etc., while the second ones only refer to time.

I would translate bastantes libros and bastante bueno (without lo) as “quite a few books”, “quite/pretty good”.

Okay, thanks for the nuance. In French, assez can match both nuances:
assez de livres = pas mal de livres (quite a few books)
assez de livres = suffisamment de livres (enough books)
or another example:
assez bien = pas mal (not bad)
assez bien = suffisamment bien (good enough)

 

[Dymn]

I wonder about the difference between "has trabajado suficiente" and "has trabajado suficiente tiempo".
Don't they match, respectively, "you have worked enough" and "you have worked long enough"? Or is there an idiomatical aspect I miss?
(In French it would be "tu as travaillé suffisamment" and "tu as travaillé suffisamment longtemps")

I see what you mean, but I think there's really not much of a difference at the end of a day. Also "suficiente" could be an adjective instead of an adverb and point to an omitted noun "tiempo". The thing is you can't use "largo" like in French/English/Dutch/German so I guess you have to use workarounds. In the same vein "il y a longtemps" could be "hace mucho tiempo" but you could perfectly say "hace mucho" and the meaning remains the same.

 

[ThomasK]

Almost three years later I wonder if there is noone who could add some other translations.

Finnish for example seems to have quite some words according to Google T: tarpeeksi, kyllin/ kylliksi, maybe also melko - and aika, which might be like the French assez de gens...

 

[AutumnOwl]

Finnish for example seems to have quite some words according to Google T: tarpeeksi, kyllin/ kylliksi, maybe also melko - and aika, which might be like the French assez de gens...

Tarpeeksi - enough, from the word tarpee, meaning need, so it could be seen as having enough for ones needs.
Kyllin/kylliksi - enough, but I'm not that familiar with the use of this word. I remember it from the Finnish title of the song "Gracias a la vida" -> "Miten voin kyllin kiittää", which I would translate as "how can I thank enough"
Melko - more like quite, rather. You could use "melko hyvä/melko huono" meaning 'fairly good/fairly bad'.
Aika - means in itself time, but "aika hyvä/aika huono" means 'pretty good/pretty bad', so both melko and aika can be used with an other words to get another meaning.

Riittävästi - meaning sufficiently, from riittä - enough.
Täydellisin, from täytää (to fill) - meaning perfectly; to fill its need; enough

 

[AutumnOwl]

Swedish:
Nog - (when stressed) means enough, (unstressed) means probably. There is somewhere a connection to some old Germanic word.
Tillräckligt - enough, from räcka - suffice, last + till
Tillfyllest - from fylla (to fill), compare täydellisin above.

Then there is the word lagom, that can be translated as just right, when something is neither too little, nor too much. If you have "lagom med X", then you have enough with X.

 

[ThomasK]

Great information for Scandi..., pardorn, from Northern Europe (as Finland is not part of Scandinavia, I think, in spite of the Swedish minority/..., which perhaps you belong to, @AutumnOwl)!

Lagom seems to be a very intriguing term, referring to some kind of social justice - or do I exaggerate/....?

Aika does seem to work like the French assez. One could wonder how the meaning has shifted from time to a certain degree, but I guess that has disappeared in the clouds of time. But in both cases (F/ FIN), a link between a certain degree and the meaning "enough" (as an understatement) does not seem implausible...

 

[Armas]

Tarpeeksi - enough, from the word tarpee, meaning need, so it could be seen as having enough for ones needs.
Kyllin/kylliksi - enough, but I'm not that familiar with the use of this word. I remember it from the Finnish title of the song "Gracias a la vida" -> "Miten voin kyllin kiittää", which I would translate as "how can I thank enough"
Melko - more like quite, rather. You could use "melko hyvä/melko huono" meaning 'fairly good/fairly bad'.
Aika - means in itself time, but "aika hyvä/aika huono" means 'pretty good/pretty bad', so both melko and aika can be used with an other words to get another meaning.

Riittävästi - meaning sufficiently, from riittä - enough.
Täydellisin, from täytää (to fill) - meaning perfectly; to fill its need; enough

Some more info about these
Tarpeeksi literally "for need" < tarve "need"
Kyllin/kylliksi, instructive/translative case of kyllä < Proto-Finnic *küllä "abundance", related to kylläinen "satiated; saturated", kyllästää "to inbue; saturate" etc.
Riittää "to suffice" (the original meaning is "to cover with a thin layer of ice"), riittävä "sufficient", riittävästi "sufficiently"
I'm not familiar with täydellisin being used in the meaning "enough". Perhaps it's a dialectal thing?
As for aika, some etymologists think aika "time" and aika "quite, rather" are not related.

 

[pimlicodude]

In Russian:
1. adv. достаточно (dostátochno), from достаток (dostátok) - "lack of need for sth", in turn from the archaic meaning of the verbs достать (dostát', perf.) and доставать (dostavát', imerf.), "to reach", here - "to be sufficient" (impersonal, +gen. for the main object and +dat. for the benefactor, i.e. "somebofy will have enough of something" transfers to "it will reach of something to somebody").
2. adv. хватит (khvátit), with infinitive phrases only (~enough V-ing!), from the future 3p.sg. form of perf. хватить (khvatít') - "to be sufficient" (closely related to "to grasp"). Note that the latter verb is used frequently when English uses "to have enough sth".
3. adv. довольно (dovól'no), literally "gladly" (in the modern Russian; the actual etymological link is almost reverse, though, with everything going back to the expression "to one's will (i.e. until one's will will be fulfilled)"). Also works as "pretty + adj.". In the meaning "enough" it has a limited use (and is always slightly bookish).

Enough books, enough milk > Достаточно книг (dostátochno kníg, "enough of-books"), достаточно молока (dostátochno moloká, "enough of-milk").
You have worked long enough > Ты проработал достаточно долго (ty prorabótal dostátochno dólgo, "you have-worked-through enough longly"); the word order will be influenced by the pragmatics.
Enough of this! > Хватит! (Khvátit!) / Довольно! (Dovól'no!)
I have had enough of this > difficult to translate literally. Cf., however, "it was enough for me" - мне этого хватило (mné étovo khvatílo, "to-me of-this (it) has-sufficed"); see above for the remarks about the verb.
This is enough/ sufficient > Этого хватит/достаточно (Étovo khvátit/dostátochno, "of-this (it) will-suffice / of-this (it is) sufficient").

And хорош in the meaning of "enough!" too.

 

[ThomasK]

Just wondering: have any of these enough words/ variants led to derivations or special compounds?

 

[AutumnOwl]

Lagom seems to be a very intriguing term, referring to some kind of social justice - or do I exaggerate/....?

The word "lag" in Swedish has three meanings, one has to do with liquids, one corresponds with the English word 'law', and the third meaning, as in the word "lagom", has to do with the right position or order. This meaning of "lag" also means team (fotbollslag - football team), (bjuda laget runt - offer something or buy something to everyone in a group; go around - think of a group of people around a table. I can imagine when passing plates with food around a table that people would take "lagom" so that everyone could get a bit/enough of everything.)
From here - 2. lag and lagom on next page.
393 (Svensk etymologisk ordbok)

 

[ThomasK]

Great background information, thanks!

 

[Armas]

I forgot the colloquial Finnish piisata. Wiktionary says it's possibly from Swedish spisa, related to German Speise (food).
In addition there are two more words which are synonymous or at least pretty close in meaning in some contexts.
Kelvata, often means to suffice in terms of quality (e.g. Tämä asunto kelpaa "This flat is good enough"), but can also refer to amount (Minulla on vain kymppi. Se saa kelvata. "I only have a tenner. It will have to suffice."), I guess your (c) and (d) are both close to this. It's possibly a loan from Pre-Germanic *kelp- (help) or from Baltic (cf. Lithuanian gelbėti "to save, rescue"). This also gives the adjective kelpo "decent, good enough" and bunch of others.
And liietä, which means to have more than enough, so that you can give some of it away. It's derived from liika "excess". E.g. viljaa liikeni myytäväksikin "there was enough grains for selling too" (example from the dictionary). It's often used when you ask someone to give you something, like, Liikeneekö pari euroa? "Can you spare a couple of euros?" or time Liikeneekö pari minuuttia? "Do you have a couple of minutes?"

 

[ThomasK]

I forgot the colloquial Finnish piisata. Wiktionary says it's possibly from Swedish spisa, related to German Speise (food).
In addition there are two more words which are synonymous or at least pretty close in meaning in some contexts.

I am inclined to think this is the initial meaning, but I may be mistaken: I have enough (food), so in other words: I am full, as we can say very informally. (See #1 as well)

Kelvata, often means to suffice in terms of quality (e.g. Tämä asunto kelpaa "This flat is good enough"), but can also refer to amount (Minulla on vain kymppi. Se saa kelvata. "I only have a tenner. It will have to suffice."), I guess your (c) and (d) are both close to this. It's possibly a loan from Pre-Germanic *kelp- (help) or from Baltic (cf. Lithuanian gelbėti "to save, rescue"). This also gives the adjective kelpo "decent, good enough" and bunch of others.

Here we use a full expression: het volstaat (but this is more like: it is sufficient, I have [had] enough. Het voldoet (aan de voorwaarden): it will do as for the quality. Also: a person comes up to/ meets the requirements/ conditions. Quality indeed, but had not realized that because of the volstaan/ voldoende (sufficient) variant...

And liietä, which means to have more than enough, so that you can give some of it away. It's derived from liika "excess". E.g. viljaa liikeni myytäväksikin "there was enough grains for selling too" (example from the dictionary). It's often used when you ask someone to give you something, like, Liikeneekö pari euroa? "Can you spare a couple of euros?" or time Liikeneekö pari minuuttia? "Do you have a couple of minutes?"

I suppose only in a combination with "for V-ing ...". Or is the addition not necessary. Guess not when reading the last part of your explanation. I do not think we have this specific meaning in Dutch.

 

[AutumnOwl]

I forgot the colloquial Finnish piisata. Wiktionary says it's possibly from Swedish spisa, related to German Speise (food).
In addition there are two more words which are synonymous or at least pretty close in meaning in some contexts.

In Swedish there is the expression "(tack,) det räcker (så)" (thanks, that's enough/suffice) when food or drink is served/poured for you at the table, or when you are offered a refill of for example coffee. If you don't want anything, then it's the whole expression, if you just want 'just a drop' then it's "det räcker" when they've poured the amount you wanted.

Kelvata, often means to suffice in terms of quality (e.g. Tämä asunto kelpaa "This flat is good enough"), but can also refer to amount (Minulla on vain kymppi. Se saa kelvata. "I only have a tenner. It will have to suffice."), I guess your (c) and (d) are both close to this. It's possibly a loan from Pre-Germanic *kelp- (help) or from Baltic (cf. Lithuanian gelbėti "to save, rescue"). This also gives the adjective kelpo "decent, good enough" and bunch of others

In Swedish we use "duga", as in "den här lägenheten duger" and "jag har bara en tia, det får duga".

And liietä, which means to have more than enough, so that you can give some of it away. It's derived from liika "excess". E.g. viljaa liikeni myytäväksikin "there was enough grains for selling too" (example from the dictionary). It's often used when you ask someone to give you something, like, Liikeneekö pari euroa? "Can you spare a couple of euros?" or time Liikeneekö pari minuuttia? "Do you have a couple of minutes?"

In Swedish there's "ha till övers" (have to spare). It can be used meaning that you have something you can give away, for example a beggar could ask "har du lite mynt till övers" (do you have some coins to spare), or "jag har fullt med frukt till övers om någon vill ha" (I have more fruit than I need if anyone want some).
But usually the phrase is used in a negative way "har inget till övers", it can be said about have nothing to give, "tyvärr, har inga biljetter till övers" (sorry, I haven't any tickets to spare). But more common it's used meaning 'having a negative opinion about something'. "Jag har inget till övers för superhjältefilmer" (i don't care about superhero movies).

 

[dojibear]

I recently learned the Mandarin word 够 (gòu, sounds like English "go!") which means "enough".

For example, "Have you studied enough?" is 你学习够了吗？(nǐ xuéxí gòu le ma) (you study enough did ?).

 

[ThomasK]

I asked about it at the Chinese pages here and it seemed to me that the meaning or concept was a little different. Maybe you can have a look.

 

[dojibear]

Chinese/English translation is not a word-by-word translation, for the most part. Most of the 21 posts in the linked thread are about your attempts to match English and Chinese words. The posts I've read so far use either 足夠 or 夠 for "enough". In Chinese, both 足夠 (zú gòu) and 夠 (gòu) mean "enough".

I am just a student, around the B1 level in Mandarin. I probably know about 2,000 words. Educated speakers might know 30,000 words.

A useful WR tool: type "enough" into the box at the top of a definition page, then click the gray "English Definition" box and switch it to "English-Chinese". Then click the magnifying glass. This will take you to a page listing 5 Chinese translations of "enough", plus translations of many English phrases with "enough" in them, plus a dictionary page for "enough" in Chinese, with example sentences.

enough - WordReference.com 英汉词典

I think the biggest problem is that the English word "enough" has several meanings, which are expressed differently in Chinese. The page lists these 5 definitions of the English word "enough":
- adjective (sufficient)
- pronoun (sufficiency)
- adverb (sufficiently)
- adverb (tolerably)
- interjection (that is sufficient!)

 

[apmoy70]

Often in every-day language, the impersonal «φτάνει!» [ˈft̠a.ni] replaces «αρκεί».
It's the 3rd person singular present indicative of the verb «φτάνω» [ˈft̠a.no̞] --> to be enough, suffice, arrive, which is the dissimilated version of the ancient verb «φθάνω» /ˈpʰtʰɐ.nɔː/ --> to anticipate, be ahead, from PIE *dʰgʷʰh₂- to come near, nearly reach, pass cf. Skt. धगिति (dhagiti), in a moment, at once.

 

[Roxxxannne]

I agree with @dojibear. 'Enough' has many different meanings in English that are expressed by tone of voice.
If A pours coffee in B's coffee cup and asks "Okay?" B can answer 'It's enough' in three different tones of voice to mean
'it's barely sufficient,' 'it's just the right amount' and 'it's more than I need.'

 

[Włoskipolak 72]

In Polish basically we have a wide choice;


enough = dość, dosyć, dostatecznie, wystarczająco.

tall/sweet enough = dość or dostatecznie or wystarczająco wysoki/słodki.

enough = jak należy

you are not trying hard enough = nie starasz się, jak należy.

not good enough = nie dość dobry.

I'm not thin enough, rich enough, beautiful enough, smart enough, promoted enough."
Nie jestem wystarczająco szczupły, bogaty, piękny, mądry, nie otrzymałem wystarczająco wysokiego awansu."

The instruments are loud enough that they can be heard without amplification, etc., etc.
Instrumenty są na tyle głośne że nie potrzeba wzmocnienia, itd.

enough (adjective) = wystarczające, wystarczająca, wystarczający

enough (adverb) = wystarczająco, dość, na tyle, dosyć

be enough (verb) = wystarczyć ,starczyć