Hard-working describes someone who puts a lot of effort into their work or studies and does it conscientiously. It's praise, and the word often appears in employee reviews, references and CVs.
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be hard-working; a hard-working + person/team/student; work hard; hard-working and + reliable/organised
- Our team is small but hard-working, so we usually finish projects ahead of schedule.
- She's the most hard-working student in the group and always does extra reading.
- Most of my neighbours are hard-working people who leave home before seven.
What changed
First versionAnna is really hard-working: she works hardly even at weekends.
RevisionAnna is really hard-working: she works hard even at weekends.
Many adverbs end in -ly, so it seems that hard needs one too. But hard is already an adverb: work hard. Hardly is a separate word meaning “almost not”: she hardly works means she does almost no work. So hardly was replaced with hard.
A personal quality is hard-working (also written as one word: hardworking), while the action is two words: She is hard-working, she works hard. In a reference letter you may also see diligent, which sounds more formal: a diligent and reliable assistant.
Your turn
Ben is ___ — he never leaves the office before eight.
Show the answer
hard-working — Ben stays at the office late, so he's hard-working. Hardly working would mean he barely works, which contradicts the second half of the sentence.
Write a short reference for a former colleague. Name their job and give one example of how they worked.
Mark was a hard-working sales manager who once called forty clients in a single day to hit his monthly target.
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