Take the 2-minute tour ×  I'm from Germany and in German both
translate to the same word (kaum). I'd like to know the
difference between these two words, hardly and barely.
share|improve this question I would also sometimes translate
kaum as "scarcely". –  Robusto Nov 8 '12 at 13:00  6 Answers 6
up vote 4 down vote accepted  They are not always
interchangeable.  I would say that someone who scored 60 on a
test for which 60 was the lowest possible passing grade barely
passed the test, but not hardly passed the test.  I would say of
someone I thought unsuitable to be, for example, a high school
teacher, that "He's hardly the type of person who should be a
high school teacher", but not "He's barely the type of person
who...".  That's American English. I don't know about other
varieties.  share|improve this answer I guess it would be
British English as well; even though I'm not a native speaker,
I'm well acquainted with BE and I would use them in the same
way. –  Paola Nov 8 '12 at 15:47  Each has meanings that