Nearly: casi, cerca de (una cantidad), aproximadamante
Almost: casi
Hardly: casi, apenas, casi no
Let's see the differences and uses:
Difference between almost and nearly
Almost and nearly have
similar meanings. They are both used to express ideas connected with progress,
measurement or counting.
He slipped and almost fell
to the ground.
or
He slipped and nearly fell to the ground.
Dinner is almost / nearly ready. (= Dinner will soon be
ready.)
Sometimes almost shows
more ‘nearness’ than nearly.
Compare:
It is nearly 12 o’clock. (= perhaps 11.45)
It is almost 12 o’clock. (= perhaps 11.55)
Differences
Nearly can
be used with very and pretty. Almost cannot
be used with very and pretty.
I have pretty nearly finished.
(NOT I have pretty almost finished.)
Nearly is
less common in American English.
Differences
Nearly suggests
progress towards a goal. Almost suggests ideas such as
similarity.
He is almost like a father
to me. (NOT He is nearly like a father to me.)
She has got a strange accent. She almost sounds foreign.
Nearly is
not normally used before negative words like never, nobody, nothing,
any etc. Instead we use almost or hardly with ever,
anybody, anything etc.
The speaker said almost nothing.
OR The speaker said hardly anything. (= The speaker said only a few
words of little importance.)
(NOT The speaker said nearly nothing.)
Almost nobody came. OR Hardly anybody came. (NOT Nearly
nobody came.)
Hardly is a negative word
and is often used with words like 'any' and 'ever', but it should not be used
with other negative words: We hardly ever do anything
interesting.
Hardly comes before the
main verb of a sentence, but when there is a modal or auxiliary verb, hardly usually comes after it: I can hardly breathe. ♦You have hardly done any work.
In stories and in formal English, hardly is sometimes used at the beginning of a
sentence before an auxiliary verb: Hardly had she begun to speak,
when there was a shout from the back of the hall.
Hardly is not related to
the word 'hard'.
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