In the GSE 52 B1+, ‘hardly‘ is an adverb that is
used to say that something has only just happened
Under Pearson’s entry, they list:
COLLOCATIONS
had hardly… before
had hardly… when
These ‘collocations‘ can also include past perfect clauses and inversion:
Hardly had he finished his announcement
when a journalist sent a link to a publication.
when he handed the keys over to her.
*Looking in the NOW corpus, the past participle ‘finished’ is the most common in this structure, followed by ‘settled’.
There are two very similar grammar points in the English Grammar Profile that cover this structure. C2 Point 66 in ADVERBS/position is defined as:
‘HARDLY’ in front position followed by an inverted subject and verb, to give focus.
Even though point 66 does not mention past perfect, all the examples given are past perfect. Point 88 in PAST/perfect simple is defined as:
invert the subject and affirmative auxiliary verb with ‘hardly … when‘ to talk about something that happened immediately before something else, in formal contexts.
There are not many examples in iWeb for:
. Hardly _V _P _V
1 . HARDLY HAD HE DONE 6
2 . HARDLY HAD HE SPOKEN 4
3 . HARDLY HAD HE BEGUN 3
4 . HARDLY HAD HE PASSED 3
5 . HARDLY HAD HE LEFT 3
. Hardly _V * _V when
1 . HARDLY IS SHE ENTRANCED WHEN 1
2 . HARDLY HAVE THEY GONE WHEN 1
3 . HARDLY HAD THEY RISEN WHEN 1
4 . HARDLY HAD THEY FINISHED WHEN 1
5 . HARDLY HAD THEY ANCHORED WHEN 1
6 . HARDLY HAD HE SPOKEN WHEN 1
7 . HARDLY HAD HE LEFT WHEN 1
Hardly had I left the house when I realized that I left my sunglasses at home.
PELIC STUDENT: Azerbaijani, Female, Level 5 grammar class