almost, hardly,nearly的区别

almost(nearly but not quite)和nearly (almost, but not completely or exactly)都意为：“几乎，差不多”，是常用的同(近)义词。在很多情况下，在作程度副词(adverbs of degree)修饰动词、形容词、副词、数词和名词(短语)时，两者通常可以换用。如：1) She fell and almost (nearly) broke her neck. 2) I nearly (almost) missed the train. 3) It was almost (nearly) dark. 4) Frozen vegetables are nearly (almost) always cheaper than fresh ones. 5) I am almost (nearly) twenty-one years old. 6) It’s almost (nearly) time to start. 7) We had been waiting almost (nearly) the whole morning but there was still no sign of him.尤其是在表达几乎、接近(到达、感到满足)的时候，如：8) We had almost (nearly) reached our destination. 9) The man is almost (nearly) 90 years old.

此外，两者都可以修饰不定代词，all, every 和everybody。如：10) Almost (Nearly) all of my friends came to the party. 11) Now let me try to explain how and why these things have come to pass in almost (nearly) every civilized country.

然而，almost和nearly两者并不完全同义，用法也不尽相同。首先，almost语气较重，它所表示的接近程度大于nearly，因此很多权威词典都将它释义为very nearly but not comp