Example sentences of "[adj] [noun sg] can hardly [vb infin] " in BNC.
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| 1 | But in numerical terms this factor can hardly have made a major impact — the Max Planck Institutes permanently employ only 2000 researchers , compared with a total of 76 000 university academics of whom more than 20 000 are professors . |
| 2 | The right hon. Gentleman can hardly refer to such a body as having the kind of authority with which he seeks to imbue it when it disagreed on a number of matters and failed to address any of the ones that really matter . |
| 3 | Even allowing that man 's capacity to overlook what he does not want to see is almost unlimited , the folk of this age can hardly have failed to observe that new law was being made all the time . |
| 4 | Readers of the British press can hardly have failed to notice the headlines announcing ‘ How the Universe Began ’ , ‘ the Holy Grail of Cosmology ’ and the ‘ Discovery of All Time ’ . |
| 5 | Its population at this time can hardly have been less than 50,000 and may easily have been well over 60,000 . |
| 6 | Certainly he never made any secret of his Conservative past , having twice stood unsuccessfully for parliament among the miners of County Durham , where his air of a slightly lost rural dean can hardly have been an asset . |
| 7 | The poor thing can hardly bring herself to speak at all . |
| 8 | Carew 's bleak diagnosis can hardly have been uninfluenced by several decades of mounting concern at the impermanence of non-agricultural employment compared with the stability of farmers fully occupied tending their land , and men continuously employed as servants in husbandry engaged for a year at a time . |
| 9 | Reputations are not changed overnight , but one of the most audacious goals of this or any other season can hardly hinder the rehabilitation of the young Arsenal striker , who has had plenty of time to repent at leisure past off-field indiscretions . |
| 10 | The doctrine is , I take it , one from which a modern theorist can hardly escape , or hardly wishes to . |