Scarcely Moderate

only a very short time before

"we hardly knew them"

"had scarcely rung the bell when the door flew open"

"would have scarce arrived before she would have found some excuse to leave"

almost not

"he hardly ever goes fishing"

"he was scarce sixteen years old"

"they scarcely ever used the emergency generator"

"I can hardly hear what she is saying"

"she barely seemed to notice him"

"we were so far back in the theater, we could barely read the subtitles"

Probably not.

"Given his track record of missing deadlines, I scarcely think he will finish this project on time."