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- used especially after ‘can’ or ‘could’ and before the main verb, to emphasize that it is difficult to do something
Apr 12, 2017 · 1. Hardly did she enter the house when someone turned on the light. 2. Hardly had she entered the house when someone turned on the light. The first phrase is from an recent English test in Korea, but according to the answer, the first one is wrong because it should be corrected to the second.
Hardly is an adverb. Hardly has a negative meaning. It normally means ‘almost not at all’ or ‘only just’. We can use it in mid position, or before an adjective or a noun: He wore a big hat that covered his head and you could hardly see his face. (you could only see a small part of his face)
HARDLY, SCARCELY, BARELY, NO SOONER. 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.
"Hard" means difficult. No confusion there. "Hardly means "difficult to COME BY." That is something is BARELY there, or "conspicuous by its (near) absence." That appears to be the etymology. It is NOT an adverb of "hard," which is why it is confusing.
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.
Oct 11, 2016 · The phrase "hardly someone's fault" is applied to a referenced individual (though spoken about in a generic manner) to say that it isn't their own fault, while "hardly anyone's fault" is applied to a situation in which one would be hard pressed to fault anybody.
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“Hard” is used in the phrase Working Hard to indicate that a person is working a lot. In this case, “hard” is an adverb which tells us that the person working is focused and doing a good job. Hardly Working indicates that the person is doing almost nothing!
