Hardly ever

E

eddiemel7778

Senior Member
São Paulo
Portuguese/Brazil
Please Help me. I am a native portuguese speaker and I have been learning English for over 10 years.
I have a question, I know that never, hardly ever, seldom etc are negative adverbs and that I usually use them in affirmative sentences, although they have negative meanings. The problem is that when I say for instance "I never go downtown" I can agree with this statement in two different ways. "I never go downtown either" or "Neither do I". Can I say the same when using hardly ever seldom, rarely, scarcely and so on?
For instance, "I hardly ever go downtown" can I agree with this statement saying "I hardly ever go downtown either" or "Neither do I"?
Thanks heaps for your help guys. Love you all Eddie.
 
    • eddiemel7778 said:
    Please Help me. I am a native portuguese speaker and I have been learning English for over 10 years.
    I have a question, I know that never, hardly ever, seldom etc are negative adverbs and that I usually use them in affirmative sentences, although they have negative meanings. The problem is that when I say for instance "I never go downtown" I can agree with this statement in two different ways. "I never go downtown either" or "Neither do I". Can I say the same when using hardly ever seldom, rarely, scarcely and so on?
    For instance, "I hardly ever go downtown" can I agree with this statement saying "I hardly ever go downtown either" or "Neither do I"?
    Thanks heaps for your help guys. Love you all Eddie.
    Click to expand...
    I think you have expressed a very accurate analysis. Congratulations.
     
    I'm going to be a dissenting voice here.

    In resposne to "I hardly ever go downtown," I would not say "Neither do I." I would say either "I hardly ever go downtown either" or "Same here"!

    To me, "neither do I" needs to be in response to a statement that contains a clear negative.
     
    The expression "hardly ever" has a special place in British English, thanks to Gilbert & Sullivan:

    Pinafore's songs captivated the nation, and the line "What never? Well, hardly ever," became part of everyday conversation. When one newspaper editor angrily commanded his reporters to never use the phrase again, they responded, "What never?" Defeated, he said, "Well, hardly ever!"

    See:
    http://www.musicals101.com/usafter.htm
     
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