几乎【jīhū】

几乎 means "almost": the claim is nearly true, but not quite. It goes before the verb or adjective, after the subject.

"Almost every", "almost all"

几乎 also goes in front of 每 or 所有的, and then the sentence needs 都 before the verb.

• × 几乎所有的同学来了 → 几乎所有的同学都来了

"Hardly": 几乎不, 几乎没

With 不 or 没 after it, 几乎 gives "hardly" or "almost nobody".

Something that nearly happened

几乎 + verb can also mean something nearly happened and didn't.

差点儿 does the same job in speech and is the usual word for a near miss; it has its own point.

Not before the subject

几乎 doesn't go in front of a pronoun subject.

• × 几乎他每天迟到 → 他几乎每天都迟到