what is the exact meaning of this sentence.

[ALEX25]

01) we had hardly sat down to the supper when the phone rang. (we had sat down and about to eat supper when the phone rang." or "we had not sit down when the phone rang. we were gong to sit down. )

02) we can't stop for coffe now, we"ve hardly started. ( we can't stop for coffee because we just started to ride, or we can't stop for coffee we didn't even started yet. it dose not make any sense to me)

please help me. i'm trying to understand how to use the word hardly. i know it has negetive meaning. but i'm not sure the above sentence have negetive meaning.. it's looks like "almost". please help me to understand the word "hardly"

[5jj]

We had hardly sat down to the supper when the phone rang. (We had only just sat down and were about to eat supper or had only just started eating when the phone rang. )

We can't stop for coffee now, we've hardly started. ( We can't stop for coffee because we've only just started.)

'Hardly' has the idea of 'almost not'.

[ALEX25]

i'm very grateful for your help..

[Rover_KE]

Alex, your thanks are appreciated, but you don't need to send them in a separate post.

We are all happy to accept a simple click on the Like button as your acknowledgement of our help.

Rover