But down the back roads, away from the water, half the people are barely literate, and the average income is $9,000 a year.

Some are barely literate, or only slightly more educated than the people they serve.

In the next two days, a thousand people - a lot of them poor and barely literate - arrived with letters.

Compared to her, though, he was slow, and barely literate.

Not only that, but some of their staff seemed barely literate.

But the man is barely literate and doesn't understand science at all.

What makes these books all the more remarkable is that they were written by people who are barely literate.

Many adults are barely literate and speak little or no Spanish.

It doesn't matter whether we came from a highly educated family or a barely literate one.

He realized after a word or two that the writer was barely literate.