Hardly

Negation

How do you say the following in English? (Select the space underneath each number to check your answer.)

1. Personne n'a rien vu.
Nobody saw anything.

2. Personne ne lui a rien dit
Nobody said anything to him. OR Nobody told him anything.

3. T'inquiète. Personne n'a rien dit à personne!
Not to worry. Nobody told anyone anything.

4. Il n'y avait rien nulle part.
There was nothing anywhere. OR There wasn't anything anywhere.

As you notice above, each sentence contains only one negation (no- / not), after which any- is used.

The meaning of "hardly"

Are you working hard or hardly working?

Here, working hard means (as you would expect) travailler dur. Hardly working on the other hand means travailler à peine. "Hardly" doesn't have anything to do with "hard" (historically it was used in conjunction with "not" in the same way that French guère is/was used with a pleonastic ne.)

Knowing this, how would you translate the following? (check your answer by )

1) Hardly anyone came to the party.
Presque personne n'est venu.