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      • Frequency adverbs meaning ‘not very often’ Hardly ever, rarely, scarcely and seldom are frequency adverbs. We can use them to refer to things that almost never happen, or do not happen very often. They have a negative meaning. We use them without not.
      dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/hardly-ever-rarely-scarcely-seldom
  1. Hardly and scarcely can mean ‘almost not at all’ or ‘only just’. Hardly is much more common than scarcely, and scarcely is more formal: Jen was so tired. She could scarcely keep her eyes open. I hardly know them. I’ve only met them once.

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      Hardly ever, rarely, scarcely, seldom - English Grammar...

    • English (US)

      Hardly ever, rarely, scarcely, seldom - English Grammar...

  2. When a story is told in the past tense, the adverbials hardly, scarcely, barely and no sooner are often used to emphasise that one event quickly followed another. The verb describing the earlier event is usually in the past perfect tense.

  3. Mar 26, 2016 · “Hardly” and “scarcely” can be used to mean “almost never,” but “barely” is not used in this way: She hardly (ever) sees her parents these days. She barely sees her parents these days.

  4. Hardly, barely, scarcely, no sooner. These adverbials often refer to an event which quickly follows another in the past and are usually used with past perfect. Hardly, scarcely and barely are followed by when in the contrasting clause, and no sooner is followed by than.

  5. We can use hardly or no sooner to say that two things happened in quick succession (i.e. there was a very short space of time between the two things happening). We say hardly . . . when / before . . . to say that something happened and another thing happened very soon afterwards.

  6. Oct 23, 2023 · Scarcely is an adverb that means the same as `hardly’. If something is scarcely true, it is almost not true. If something scarcely exists, it almost does not exist. Don’t use ‘not’ with scarcely. The smell was so bad I could scarcely bear it. The woman was scarcely able to walk.

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  8. 1. You use scarcely to emphasize that something is only just true or only just the case. [emphasis] [...] 2. You can use scarcely to say that something is not true or is not the case, in a humorous or critical way. [...]

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