What's the difference between hardly and hard?
Answers to the exercise

    1. There's hardly any coffee left. Can you go out and get some?

    2. I hardly spoke any Japanese when I first came here, but I've learned a lot since then.

    3. It was very noisy in my neighbourhood last night. I could hardly get to sleep.

    4. I live quite close to Nagoya, but I hardly ever go there.

    5. We'd hardly started the barbecue when it began to rain.
      (Or if you want to sound more literary: Hardly had we started the barbecue when it began to rain).

    6. Hardly a day goes by that I don't think about her.

    7. A: Cynthia, will you marry me?
      B: But, Harold, I only met you for the first time last week. I hardly know you.

    We hope you've enjoyed this week's lesson. Please look out for more examples of hardly when you are reading English and write them down in your notebook.

    There are plenty of other one-point lessons on this site. Please click here if you want to try some of them.

    © Robert E. Jones, 2004