#774 Hard Vs Hardly, Alexa, The Naked Cowboy Vs The Blue M&M

[SilencedUdder]

working hard or hardly workin?

[wowJhil]

Can you say: it was hardly hard?

[thedailyenglishshow]

Yes, I think so, but since it sounds a bit strange I guess people would usually choose another way to say it. I just did a search for "hardly hard" and I found a recipe for "hardly hard sauce". I also found a lot of sites about this business catchphrase: "working hard, or hardly working". Interesting, I'd never heard that before. I think that's a good phrase to show the difference between hard and hardly.

[jsmxwll]

"Working hard, or hardly working?" is a very common phrase in American business. Another one is, "Are you busy, or productive?"  But the specific reason I'm replying is that "hardly hard" is a fairly common saying where I live in South-West USA. That being said, "hardly" isn't used very commonly so it may be more accurate to say that "hardly hard" is a fairly common use of "hardly" though neither is used abundantly. Sorry for the terrible grammar.

-Max

[wowJhil]

That surprises me, thanks for sharing!

[wowJhil]

Hardly hard sauce must be meant to sound funny, unless it comes from South-West USA :)

[thedailyenglishshow]

Ha ha. I almost wrote that in the description!