Flannery O'ConnorGeorge Bernard ShawSir Winston ChurchillNevil ShuteE. Barrington (Elizabeth Louisa Moresby Beck)Osbert Sitwell
Can hardly be used with a negative?: Usage Guide
Hardly in sense 1d is used sometimes with not for emphasis.
In sense 1e with a negative verb (such as can't, wouldn't, didn't) it does not make a double negative but softens the negative. In "you can't hardly find a red one," the sense is that you can find a red one, but only with difficulty; in "you can't find a red one," the sense is that red ones are simply not available. Use of hardly with a negative verb is a speech form; it is most commonly heard in Southern and Midland speech areas. In other speech areas and in all discursive prose, hardly is normally used with a positive.
Synonyms
Examples of hardly in a Sentence
Brittney McKenna, Rolling Stone, 4 Feb. 2025
Some of the athletes loved skating so much that their parents could hardly keep them off the ice.
—Julie Bosman, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2025
The world’s main manufacturing economy can hardly be considered a developing country, even if Beijing insists to the contrary.
—Jorge G. CastaÑeda, Foreign Affairs, 4 Feb. 2025
Lucky for him, hardly a performance goes by at any Grammys show without some dancing from his friend, longtime collaborator and tablemate Swift.
—Kimi Robinson, USA TODAY, 3 Feb. 2025
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Dictionary Entries Near hardly
Cite this Entry
“Hardly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hardly. Accessed 9 Feb. 2025.
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