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Since the meanings of the words harsh and hard are similar but not the same, does "harsh on" make sense?

For example:

Calm down you shouldn't be too harsh on him.

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    Seems fine to me. I would hazard a guess that hard is more common here but I might be wrong.
    – mdewey
    Commented Mar 11, 2021 at 15:06
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    It does not. You are harsh with or harsh to someone, but not harsh on someone.
    – FeliniusRex - gone
    Commented Mar 11, 2021 at 15:12
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    @FeliniusRex I have to disagree; it's perfectly fluent to say harsh on someone. For example, "You're trying to tell me I was too harsh on him?" and We feel it only fair that we be equally harsh on you
    – stangdon
    Commented Mar 11, 2021 at 15:38
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    I agree with @stangdon. It is interesting to see how some people object to this usage, to which I wouldn't give a second thought. I also think the Ngram chart included in the accepted answer is flawed. This chart is more objective.
    – Eddie Kal
    Commented Mar 12, 2021 at 0:41

2 Answers 2

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“Harsh on” may be acceptable, but “harsh to” is far more common.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Harsh+on%2C+harsh+to&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2CHarsh%20on%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Charsh%20to%3B%2Cc0

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    I think these can have different uses. One is harsh to a friend, but harsh on their children, for example. (In that case, it's more common to say one is hard on their children, but I think harsh works too.)
    – TypeIA
    Commented Mar 11, 2021 at 15:17
  • @TypeIA I did not say “harsh on” is ungrammatical; I said and provided evidence that it is quite rare. I am not sure we materially disagree.
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Mar 11, 2021 at 16:22
  • Indeed, that's why I upvoted!
    – TypeIA
    Commented Mar 11, 2021 at 18:13
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    @TypeIA Ahh. Thank you. I misread the intent of your comment.
    – Jeff Morrow
    Commented Mar 11, 2021 at 19:08
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    The Ngram chart is not a fair comparison because instances like "harsh to + Verb" such as "seems harsh to say" or "harsh to be", or collocations with nouns where "harsh on" wouldn't be used such as "sounds harsh to our ears" are a thumb on the scale for "harsh to". You need to include a pronoun in the comparison to make it a fair race. Check out this chart.
    – Eddie Kal
    Commented Mar 12, 2021 at 0:36
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I don't think anyone would look at you wrong if you said it, but using harsh instead of hard is probably more of a malapropism in most cases. That being said, because English is so fluid, "harsh on" could easily become more normal if it's used more.

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    It's not a malapropism, because harsh and hard are synonyms in this particular usage. However, the phrase "hard on" is an idiom with no sensible literal meaning. As such, changing it is understandable, but a bit weird. I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot rod. :-)
    – jpaugh
    Commented Mar 11, 2021 at 23:53

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