Good question! "Kun" is mostly used for scarcity in quantity or number (like "only" or "solely"). "Bare" is used as "just" or "merely", and is usually not applied for quantities. Der er kun 100 meter til stranden. It's just 100 meters to the beach. Der er kun en spand maling tilbage. There is only one bucket of paint left. Der kom kun tre gæster. There only came three guests. Jeg sagde bare noget tilfældigt. I just said something random. Han ville bare hjælpe. He just wanted to help. Han gik bare alene. He just went alone. You might find occurrances where they are applied oppositely, so I wouldn't claim that it's a hard rule! Don't be surprised to see: "Han ville kun hjælpe", or "der var bare en spand maling tilbage" (although "bare" used for quantity is much more normal in Norwegian). Martin