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Hardly ever, rarely, scarcely, seldom - English Grammar Today - a reference to written and spoken English grammar and usage - Cambridge Dictionary
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Hardly ever, rarely, scarcely, seldom - English Grammar...
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Hardly ever, rarely, scarcely, seldom - English Grammar...
- English Grammar Today
Hardly ever, rarely, scarcely, seldom — English Grammar...
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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. If hardly, scarcely, barely and no sooner are in the initial position, the subject and auxiliary are ...
The meaning is the same. I'd (I had) scarcely / hardly finished cleaning up the mess when / before my son dropped cake on the floor. In more formal speech and in literature we sometimes use inversion after hardly and scarcely. Hardly / scarcely had she drunk the magic liquid when she began to see everything in strange and vivid colours.
Aug 20, 2013 · Hardly and scarcely. It is possible to express the same idea using hardly/scarcely…when. Hardly had I reached the station when the train came. Scarcely had I reached the station when the train arrived. As soon as. This structure is also used with the same meaning. As soon as I arrived at the station, the train came.
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. Hardly had we sat down when we were told to evacuate the building.
Sacking the coach was scarcely the best decision to take. As you can see, the examples above are very similar to the examples with ‘hardly‘. In face, you can substitute ‘scarcely‘ for ‘hardly‘ in all of the above examples. Barely. Barely means almost not, or only just. We don’t use it to mean certainly not. Here are some examples:
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Inversion means putting the verb before the subject. The normal order of words is reversed or inverted, generally to add emphasis or forcefulness, or to give special effect. It also sounds quite formal. The part we want to emphasise is generally at the beginning of the sentence. Although inversion of the verb before the subject is a common ...
