hardly

hard·ly  (härdl)

adv.

1. Barely; just.

2. To almost no degree; almost not: I could hardly hear the speaker.

3. Probably or almost surely not: "Easily was a man made an infidel, but hardly might he be converted to another faith" T.E. Lawrence.

4. With severity; harshly.

5. With great difficulty; painfully.

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[Middle English hardli, from Old English heardlce, harshly, bravely, from heard, hard; see hard.]

Usage Note: In Standard English, hardly, scarcely, and similar adverbs cannot be used with a negative. The sentence I couldn't hardly see him, for instance, is not acceptable. This violation of the double negative rule is curious because these adverbs are not truly negative in meaning. The sentence Mary hardly laughed means that Mary did laugh a little, not that she kept from laughing altogether, and therefore does not express a negative proposition. But adverbs like hardly and scarcely do share some important features of negative adverbs, even though they may not have purely negative meaning. For one thing, they combine with any and at all, which are characteristically associated with negative contexts. Thus we say I hardly saw him at all or I never saw him at all but not I occasionally saw him at all. Similiarly, we say I hardly had any time or I didn't have any time but not I had any time and so on. Like other negative adverbs, hardly triggers inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb when it begins a sentence. Thus we say Hardly had I arrived when she left on the pattern of Never have I read such a book or At no time has he condemned the movement. Other adverbs do not cause this kind of inversion. We would not say Occasionally has he addressed this question or To a slight degree have they changed their position. The fact is that adverbs such as hardly can be said to have a negative meaning in that they minimize the state or event they describe. Thus hardly means "almost not at all"; rarely means "practically never"; and so forth. This is why they cannot be used with another negative such as not or none. See Usage Notes at double negative, rarely, scarcely.

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hardly

Adverb

1. scarcely; barely: he'd hardly sipped his whisky

2. Ironic not at all: it was hardly in the Great Train Robbery league

3. with difficulty: their own families would hardly recognize them

USAGE: Since hardly, scarcely, and barely already have negative force, it is redundant to use another negative in the same clause: he had hardly had (not he hadn't hardly had) time to think; there was scarcely any (not scarcely no) bread left.

Thesaurus

Adv.	1.	hardly - only a very short time before; "they could barely hear the speaker"; "we hardly knew them"; "just missed being hit"; "had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open"; "would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave"- W.B.Yeats barely, scarce, scarcely, just
	2.	hardly - almost not; "he hardly ever goes fishing"; "he was hardly more than sixteen years old"; "they scarcely ever used the emergency generator" scarcely

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hardly

adverb 1. barely, only just, scarcely, just, faintly, with difficulty, infrequently, with effort, at a push Brit. (informal) almost not << OPPOSITE completely

adverb 2. only just, just, only, barely, not quite, scarcely

adverb 3. not at all, not, no way, by no means see see, scarcely

Translations

hardly [ˈhɑːdlɪ] adv (= scarcely) → apenas;

that can hardly be true → eso difícilmente puede ser cierto;

hardly ever → casi nunca;

I can hardly believe it → apenas me lo puedo creer

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hardly [ˈhɑːdlɪ] adv (= scarcely) → à peine (= harshly); durement;

it's hardly the case → ce n'est guère le cas;

hardly anywhere/ever → presque nulle part/jamais;

I can hardly believe it → j'ai du mal à le croire

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hardly [ˈhɑːdlɪ] adv → kaum;

(harshly) → hart, streng;

it's hardly the case (ironic) → das ist wohl kaum der Fall;

I can hardly believe it → ich kann es kaum glauben

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hardly [ˈhɑːdlɪ] adv (= scarcely) → appena, a mala pena;

it's hardly the case → non è proprio il caso;

hardly anyone/anywhere → quasi nessuno/da nessuna parte;

I can hardly believe it → stento a crederci