What's the difference between hardly and hard?

    Sometimes I've heard students say things like this:

    • He works very hardly.
    • She studies hardly every day.

    What they should really say is:

    • He works very hard.
    • She studies hard every day.

    In English, many adverbs (•›ŽŒ) are formed by adding '-ly' to the adjective (Œ`—eŽŒ):

    • careful - carefully, safe - safely, intelligent - intelligently, quiet - quietly.

    but hard is special. It can be either an adjective or an adverb.

    In these examples, hard is an adjective:

    • I've had a really hard day at the office today.
    • A waiter's job can be very hard sometimes.

    In these examples, hard is an adverb:

    • You have to study very hard if you want to be a doctor.
    • He laughed so hard that his sides were aching.

    So, how can we use the word hardly? See below.

Hard vs. Hardly

    We can say things like:

    • He hardly does any work.
    • She hardly studies.

    However, these are not the same as he works hard and she studies hard.
        He hardly does any work means He does almost no work.
        She hardly studies means She almost never studies.

    So, how can we use hardly? - Some examples

    ALMOST NO/ ALMOST NOT:

    • I've been so worried for the last few days, I've hardly slept at all.
    • I'm so busy with work, I hardly have any time for hobbies.
    • It's very unfortunate perhaps but hardly anybody in Japan studies the Ainu language nowadays.

    Please notice that although hardly is often used with words like any, anything, anyone etc., it does not take a negative verb form. We can say: I hardly have any time or I don't have much time but NOT I don't have hardly any time).

    HARDLY EVER:
    Hardly ever means almost never. It is similar to seldom or rarely:

    • Susan and I were good friends at school, but I hardly ever hear from her nowadays.
    • My wife and I hardly ever go to karaoke - maybe once or twice a year.

    CAN HARDLY + VERB:
    Can hardly can be used with a large number of verbs. It suggests that something is very difficult to do. It seems to be especially common with verbs like see, hear, believe, understand, feel or verbs of movement like walk, move:

    • Can you speak a little louder, please. I can hardly hear you.
    • The fog was so thick that I could hardly see my hand in front of my face.
    • You want me to give more money to the school? I can hardly afford to feed my own family.

    There are some useful idiomatic phrases which you can use with the CAN HARDLY pattern. Here are some examples:

    • I was so sleepy I could hardly keep my eyes open.
    • I'm really looking forward to the summer holidays. I can hardly wait for school to finish.
    • My uncle sounded so funny when he was scolding us that I could hardly keep a straight face. (I wanted to laugh).
    • When he told me I'd won a thousand pounds, I could hardly believe my ears. (I couldn't believe it was true).

    I HAD HARDLY DONE X, WHEN Y HAPPENED:
    This pattern can be used when we want to talk about one event which occurs very soon after another event. It is particularly used when the second event is something surprising or annoying:

    • I'd hardly got back home from work when the telephone rang. It was the boss.
    • We'd hardly driven more than 5 miles when the car broke down.

    It is also possible to begin the sentence with hardly as in:

    • Hardly had I arrived back home from work when the telephone rang.

    However, please note that this Hardly had I... structure is more typical in formal writing than in everyday conversation.

    HARDLY A DAY GOES BY:
    This structure can be used to emphasize that something happens every day. It can be followed by (a) that + negative, (b) when + negative or (c) without + verb with -ing:

    • Hardly a day goes by that you don't read of another political scandal.
    • Hardly a day goes by without someone putting junk mail through my letter box.

    Tip:
    If you want to see more examples of this structure, try a Google Search. Type in "hardly a day goes by..." and you will get more than 10,700 examples.

    Exercise

    Rewrite the underlined parts of the following sentences, using a phrase with hardly.

      Example:
      This new guy that we've just employed doesn't do very much work.
      - This new guy that we've just employed does hardly any work.

    1. There isn't much coffee left. Can you go out and get some?

    2. I didn't speak very much 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 found it difficult to get to sleep.

    4. I live quite close to Nagoya, but I don't go there very often.

    5. Just a few minutes after we'd started the barbecue, it began to rain

    6. I think about her every day.

    7. A: Cynthia, will you marry me?
      B: But, Harold, I only met you for the first time last week. I still don't know you very well

    Click here to check your answers.

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    © Robert E. Jones, 2004