“hardly” and “barely” If I want to use “barely” to expree the meaning of “she can hardly speak english”， I should say ”she can barely speak english“ or ”she can't barely speak english“ ？ THX

Cosima

2014年1月3日 14:49

回答 · 3

The right way would be "She can barely speak english". Are you familiar with the concept of a double negative? Like ... "I don't want none" In that case, the "don't" and "none" cancel each other out and it ends up meaning that you do want whatever it is. "She can't barely speak english" is similar to that, so stick to the "can" in this case.

2014年1月3日

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