English Grammar

... hardly ... when/before ...

The expression … hardly … when/before … is used (often with a past perfect tense) to suggest that one thing happened very soon after another.

• I had hardly closed my eyes when the phone rang.
• I had hardly closed the door before somebody knocked.
• I had hardly reached the station when the train steamed out.
  

In a formal or literary style, the structure is sometimes used with an inverted word order.

• Hardly had I closed my eyes when the phone rang.
• Hardly had I closed the door before somebody knocked.
• Hardly had I sat for dinner when the telephone rang.
  

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