Broad negatives

◊ GRAMMAR

A broad negative is one of a small group of words which are used to make a statement almost negative.

We were scarcely able to move.

Fathers and sons very seldom now go together to football matches.

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The five broad negatives are:

barely, hardly, rarely, scarcely, seldom

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The position of broad negatives within a clause is similar to that of `never'. See entry at ↑ never.

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◊ with 'any' words

If you want to say that there is very little of something, you can use a broad negative with `any' or with a word which begins with `any-'.

There is rarely any difficulty in finding enough food.

Hardly anybody came.

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◊ 'almost'

Instead of using a broad negative, you can use `almost' followed by a negative word such as `no' or `never'. For example, `There was almost no food left' means the same as `There was hardly any food left'.

They've almost no money for anything.

Men almost never begin conversations.

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For information on other uses of `almost', see entry at ↑ almost - nearly.

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◊ tag questions

If you make a tag question out of a statement that contains a broad negative, the tag at the end of the statement is normally positive, as it is with other negatives.

She's hardly the right person for the job, is she?

You seldom see that sort of thing these days, do you?

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