[Vocabulary] hardly be other than grateful

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Silverobama

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Hi,

What does the sentence mean "She can hardly be other than grateful"? Does it mean "She can only be grateful"? If so, is the sentence idiomatic?
 
Yes, that is exactly what it means.

It is a rather formal circumlocution.
 
:up: And some people try to attenuate the formality by adding an 'anything' (which makes 'other' into an adjective).

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