Scarcely

👁 thetazuo

thetazuo

Senior Member

China

Chinese - China

"Is everyone someone's informer in this cursed city?"
"Scarcely," said Littlefinger.

Hi, everyone. In this quote(from A Game of Thrones), does Littlefinger mean "Not quite many people are someone's informers"?

Thank you in advance.

👁 sound shift

sound shift

Senior Member

Derby (central England)

English - England

No, this "scarcely" is a way of saying "I really don't think so."

👁 thetazuo

thetazuo

Senior Member

China

Chinese - China

sound shift said:

No, this "scarcely" is a way of saying "I really don't think so."

Thank you, sound shift. Could you give me more examples of this use of "scarcely"?

👁 kentix

kentix

Senior Member

English - U.S.

Another way to say that is, "That's hardly true." ["That's scarcely true."]

Both mean that it is not a good description of the actual facts. It's such a bad description, almost the opposite is actually true. There are some informers, but the majority of people are not.

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