爱华网一、“hardly和scarcely（几乎不）”表示的半否定式：
1. I hardly (或scarcely) saw anything.我几乎什么也没看见。
2. It is hardly (或scarcely) right.这几乎是不对的。
3. We could hardly (或scarcely) understand it.我们几乎不可能了解这件事。
4. Hardly (或Scarcely) anybody believesthat.几乎没有人相信这件事。（或：几乎谁都不相信这件事。）
二、“hardly(或scarcely)…when（或before）…”作“刚……就……”解，注意hardly和sca rcely位于句首时，有主、谓语颠倒现象：
1. Hardly had I reached the station when (或before)the trainstarted.我刚到车站，火车就开了。
2. Scarcely had he opened the door when(或before)a gust of wind blewthe candle out.他刚开门，一阵风就把蜡烛吹灭了。
使用本句型结构时必须注意下列三点：
（1）scarcely或hardly所在的主句内，谓语动作发生在when或before从句内的谓语动词之前，因此主句用过去完成时，从句用过去时。
（2）若hardly或scarcely位于句首，则后面主语和助动词词序要颠倒。
（3）不能用than代替句中的when，若非要用than，则必须改用“nosooner…than…”句型。下列几种表示式的句意相同：
a）He had scarcely (或hardly) seen the letter when (或before) hestarted back home.他一见到信就动身回家了。
b）Scarcely (或hardly) had he seen the letter when（或before）he startedback home.（译文同上）
c）He had no sooner seen the letter than he started back home.（译文同上）
d）No sooner had he seen the letter than he started back home.（译文同上）
e）He started back home as soon as he saw the letter.(=As soon as hesaw the letter, he stated back home.) （译文同上）
注：用as soon as …时，主句和从句的时态通常一致，但从句不用将来时，因它是时间从句。
