Construction · C1 · Formal or literary · less common than as soon as in everyday conversation
hardly … when
HARD-lee … wen Stress hardly and the key event words; fronted hardly triggers auxiliary–subject inversion.
A formal structure showing that a second past event happened almost immediately after the first.
tek što … već; jedva da je … kad
Use it
Hardly had the hearing begun when a fire alarm interrupted it.
The earlier event uses past perfect with inversion; the interruption uses past simple.
She had hardly closed the file when a new message arrived.
Without fronting, normal subject–auxiliary order is used.
Build the sentence
Hardly had + subject + past participle + when + past simple
Memory scene
The first domino has hardly landed when the second falls: there is almost no gap between the events.
Watch out
After fronted hardly, say Hardly had I arrived, not Hardly I had arrived. Pair this timing construction with when, not than. Hardly already has a negative meaning, so do not add not.
Nearby language
A similarly formal inverted structure, but it pairs no sooner with than.
The natural neutral choice in everyday speech and writing, without inversion.
Grammatically parallel and slightly more formal or literary than hardly … when.
Make it yours
Ročište je počelo, a gotovo istog trenutka oglasio se protivpožarni alarm.