Hardly had I arrived WHEN or THAN?

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ESL forum > Grammar and Linguistics > Hardly had I arrived WHEN or THAN?

Hardly had I arrived WHEN or THAN?

Hardly had I arrived WHEN or THAN?

Hello!

I�m a bit confused about the use of WHEN or THAN with "HARDLY"

"Hardly had I arrived than/ when it started to rain".

Can I use both? or only WHEN is possible?

Thanks in advance

13 Dec 2012

yanogator

It �s not a comparison, so don �t use "than". Also, the word order is very literary. We would say "I had hardly (or barely) arrived when it started to rain."

Bruce

13 Dec 2012

almaz

Yes, "hardly...than" is a syntactic blend (from "no sooner...than" and "hardly...when" - in the same way as "equally as good..." etc). Neither construction is particularly common nowadays anyway.

13 Dec 2012

Thank you for your answers.
I know it is very formal English but I had to explain inversion to the most advanced students and they asked me about "than" and "when".

Cheers

15 Dec 2012