hardly

«hardly» in Mova's school dictionary: almost not, or only just — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adverb (hardly)

meaning for a pupil

1) Hardly means almost not, or only just. tree →

2) Hardly ever means almost never. tree →

3) Hardly can mean it is not reasonable: «You can hardly blame him.» tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday talk «I could hardly see» means I almost could not see. In reading lessons pupils notice that «hardly» makes a sentence nearly negative. In maths «hardly any left» means very few left. Phrases: hardly any, hardly ever, hardly at all, could hardly, hardly anyone.

examples

• I could hardly see in the fog. tree →
• We hardly ever go to the cinema. tree →
• There is hardly any milk left. tree →
• She had hardly started when the bell rang. tree →
• He hardly ate anything. tree →
• Hardly anyone came to the match. tree →
• I can hardly believe it! tree →
• He hardly knew himself, so changed was he. tree →

note

Trap: «hardly» does NOT mean «in a hard way». «He works hard» (a lot); «he hardly works» (almost not at all). «Hardly» is already almost negative, so don't add «not»: say «I can hardly see», not «I can't hardly see». In a problem, «hardly any» means a very small number, close to zero.

In the corpora

• Kangaroos hop with springy tendons that store energy like a pogo stick, so hopping fast costs them hardly more energy than hopping slowly.
• Honey hardly ever goes off, because it is so sugary and dry that germs cannot grow in it.
• Some bees in warm countries can hardly sting at all and bite instead.
• Fresh sweat hardly smells; it is the tiny bacteria that eat it that make the pong.
• Storks hardly have a voice; they greet each other by throwing their heads back and clattering their bills like a wooden toy.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «hardly» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.