I came across these sentences in Oxford Dictionary where it says we can say the sentence 1 but not 2. Sentence 3 was written by me in order to compare.
She hardly (ever) sees her parents these days.
She barely sees her parents these days.
She scarcely sees her parents these days.
I'd like to ask why. My understanding is that the second sentence implies that as if there is a physical obstacle between ( the girl and her parents) them like maybe a long and wide walls so it does not make sense.
I'd like to compare two these sentences so as to make sure I got them right.
For example :
They hardly do exercise.
( what is your first impression? For example because they don't have time to do exercise etc.)
They barely do exercise
( If this sentence makes a sense ,what is your first impression? Could you infer from the sentence that they cannot do exercise even though they want because there is a physical problem with their bodies)
Best Answer
According to the source you provided
“barely” doesn't convey the aforesaid meaning “hardly” does.
Your interpretation isn't quite lucid to me, but I think it's close to mine; i.e. “to barely see someone” means “to not be able to see someone clearly”, as if the view is obstructed in some way, or similar -- compared to the intended meaning “to hardly ever see someone”.
In the second part, I have the impression that your understanding is perfunctory. Firstly, the idiom “do exercise” doesn't strike me as common but I maintain it's grammatical.
Anyhow, my interpretation of your first example is “they seldom do the exercise”. Other meanings could be assigned as well. I interpret the second sentence as “they do the exercise with difficulty or struggle to complete it”.