Scarcelymeans ‘almost not at all’. It is quite formal. It usually comes in thenormal mid position for adverbs (between the subject and the main verb, or after the modal verb or first auxiliary verb, or afterbeas a main verb):
Wescarcelyhad time to think and had to act immediately.
These days there isscarcelya week without a major political scandal.(afterbe)
I couldscarcelybelieve that she had once killed someone.(after modalcould= I could almost not believe it at all)
We can also usescarcelywhen something happens immediately after something else:
Lena hadscarcelygot through the doorwhenthe phone rang. It was Mrs Bate.(Lena entered the house; the phone rang immediately.)
If we usescarcelyin front position, we invert the subject and the verb. This usage is quite formal:
Scarcelyhadthe demonstrationstarted when trouble broke out and the police moved in to arrest people.
In all of the examples above, we can usehardlyinstead ofscarcely.Scarcelyis more formal and less common thanhardly.
See also:
Hardly
Inversion