Our French colleague? Hardly (3,6)

I believe the answer is:

not really

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'hardly' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are adverbs.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'our french colleague?' is the wordplay.
'our french' becomes 'notre' ('our' in French).
'colleague?' becomes 'ally' (ally can mean a colleague or associate).
'notre'+'ally'='NOT REALLY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for not really that I've seen is " Just kidding".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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