Friday, August 27, 2010

Hardly - English editing.

Words such as hardly, scarcely, and rarely should not be used with negative constructions. Thus, it is correct to say I can hardly wait but incorrect to say I can’t hardly wait. This is because adverbs such as hardly are treated as if they were negatives, and it is a grammatical rule of Standard English that double negatives (i.e. in this case having hardly and not in the same clause) are not acceptable. Words such as hardly behave as negatives in other respects as well, as for example in combining with words such as any or at all, which are normally only used where a negative is present: standard usage is I’ve got hardly any money.
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