Correct sentences

Question

Hardly anybody I know has been to Asia.

 

This mattress is very hard. I can’t sleep on it.

 

Preparing for such an important exam was hardly work.

 

There were hardly any people in the restaurant.

 

We tried very hardly to pass the test. We even studied at night.

 

Mark has hardly anything said about the accident

 

I’ve got hard any butter in the fridge.

 

Don’t eat these apples! They are too hardly.

 

I can hardly hear the music. Can you turn on the radio, please?

Answer 1

It is quite interesting that among your sentences there is no example of one of the most roundly condemned "errors" involving hardly, namely its use in so-called double negative sentences like I can't hardly hear you, in which because hardly has the force of a negative word the particle 't standing for not is said to be redundant and unnecessary. Indeed some self-styled logicians will go as far as to claim that semantically I can't hardly hear you is equivalent to 'I can hear you' since the two negative elements 't and hardly "cancel each other out." Another example: I don't hardly know, another double-negative construction this time with the contraction n't for not co-occurring with hardly, which then some of these same people referred to above would insist "must" mean 'I (do) know'.

 

That said, here are my judgments on your examples:

• Hardly anybody I know has been to Asia. Technically correct, but since hardly is often found in more formal registers (i.e., levels of speech), it would seem that the slightly more formal anyone would likely be used in such a context instead of anybody, but again as it stands there's nothing "wrong" with this sentence.
• This mattress is very hard. I can’t sleep on it. Correct; here hard is an adjective serving as the subject complement in the first sentence of this pair (i.e., it modifies the subject this mattress after the copular verb is).
• Preparing for such an important exam was hardly work. An interesting example because it can have two quite different interpretations:

1. Probably the more expected reading is one in which preparing for the exam was difficult, i.e., it was "hard work," and in this case the adjective form hard would be required, not its apparent adverb form hardly, since hard premodifies the noun work. In other words, with this meaning the sentence would be "incorrect."
2. However, if the intended meaning is that for whatever reason preparing for this particular exam was in fact close to being a diversion and a delight and not a chore, then hardly work would be appropriate, with a sense that could also be paraphrased as 'not much like work at all.'

• There were hardly any people in the restaurant. Correct; hardly modifies the determiner any.
• We tried very hardly to pass the test. We even studied at night. Incorrect (specifically, the first sentence of this pair is) since hardly actually cannot be used as an adverb of manner which is required in this sentence, as most other English adjectives can by simply adding the adverb-creating suffix -ly (cf. great-greatly, desperate-desperately, valiant-valiantly).
• Mark has hardly anything said about the accident. Another interesting example because there are two different transformations of this incorrect sentence that would make it correct, namely one in which the past participle said is moved to follow its auxiliary has yielding Mark has said hardly anything about the accident and another in which anything and said "swap places," resulting in the also correct Mark has hardly said anything about the accident. And of course in these alternatives hardly modifies different elements of the sentence (at least on the surface), the direct object anything in the first and the past participle/main verb said in the second.
• I’ve got hard any butter in the fridge. Incorrect because hardly is needed to premodify any. And note that even if the intended meaning involves referring to (refrigerator-cooled) hard butter, since the sentence is an affirmative statement and not a question nor a negative statement, any would not be used at all, cf. I've got (some) hard butter in the fridge versus Do you have (any) hard butter in the fridge? and I don't have (any) hard butter in the fridge.
• Don’t eat these apples! They are too hardly. Incorrect (specifically the second sentence of the pair) since clearly the meaning is that the apples are hard, i.e., the antecedent of the pronoun they, which serves as the subject of the second sentence, is these apples in the first, and in the second sentence the verb is are which requires a following subject complement which can be only a noun or noun phrase or an adjective like hard (which is itself premodified by the adverb too in this example, which points to the interesting possibility that one could indeed "correctly" say hardly hard in some contexts, e.g., But these apples are hardly hard).
• I can hardly hear the music. Can you turn on the radio, please? Correct, since in the first sentence can hardly is clearly not a double negative as I discussed at the beginning of my response.