“Hard” and “Hardly” have different meanings
written by Lilian Ndongmo. ESL Teacher
You must have learned how to form adverbs from adjectives. If not, it’s quite easy. To change an adjective into an adverb, the general rule is to add –ly to the end of the adjective.
Examples: Adjective Adverb
Sad Sadly
Warm Warmly
Hard Hardly?
The adverb of hard is hard, not hardly.
Hardly means barely, not at all, scarcely, only just, almost not.
In French, it means à peine.
In Spanish: apenas (Spanish speakers please make corrections if necessary and suggest synonyms for this word)
Examples:
This piece of wood is hard. (hard is used as an adjective)
He works hard. (hard is used as an adverb)
He hardly works. (means he almost doesn’t work or he does very little work)
How do you say the word ‘hardly’ in your native language (Arabic, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc.)?