I highly doubt that

«I hardly/highly doubt it» [closed]

Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic. A list of these references can be found here: List of general references

I always thought «I hardly doubt it» was a correct sentence, but it seems that it isn’t. I do find a lot of occurrences though.

Should it be «I highly doubt it»?

I know the difference between hardly and highly, but just wanted to know if it can be used in this context. This made me doubt it (pun intended).

3 Answers 3

means you doubt it only a little.

means you doubt it a lot.

Both are grammatical but mean quite opposite things.

I’ve never heard the term «I’d hardly doubt it»; you’d use that in case you were unsurprised were events to take a certain turn.

«I’d hardly doubt it. It’s not like she has a back-up plan.»

You’d use «I highly doubt it» (note use of I/I’d) if you were dubious of the course of events.

«I highly doubt it, it only feels like five minutes.»

I do a lot of writing and I think in this case you have to think of the separate meanings of highly and hardly and put that with the doubt part.

«Highly doubt it» is the more preferable and, possibly more correct way, as it means the person really doubts what has been said (for example).

«Hardly doubt it» can be used but it has a slightly different meaning. Say someone (in a story) says they believe something is going to happen/certain outcome. The replier would say «I hardly doubt it» if they disagree/think the opposite.