Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
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@grammargirl
If the treaty is feeling hopeful at the time of the ratification then it is correctly written; however, this should more likely be restated to clarify why the inanimate object is experiencing emotion. The parties to the thing might hopefully enter into an agreement.@grammargirl
If you really want to keep the word and the comma then I'd be the reader scanning for context to understand what you mean, unless you'd add a few words. For example, Hopefully, I'm predicting the treaty will be ratified. That way, I'm understanding who it is who is feeling the hope. -
@grammargirl That feels like a pedantry battle no one’s fighting anymore. It felt very old fashioned to me the first time I read it (Strunk & White?) decades ago.
@overholt That's what I thought (and hoped) too, but the comments across three networks are proving me wrong.
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
@grammargirl I think it would depend on the context though. I don't think I'd use it like that in anything remotely formal. But a post here, or maybe on my blog, sure.
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
@grammargirl
As I regularly report, when I ask my students about this (Ivy-League graduate writing students), for the last several years not a single one has even been aware of a "hopefully" controversy, let alone had an opinion on it. -
@grammargirl
As I regularly report, when I ask my students about this (Ivy-League graduate writing students), for the last several years not a single one has even been aware of a "hopefully" controversy, let alone had an opinion on it.@jessesheidlower That's what I had expected to find!
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@jessesheidlower That's what I had expected to find!
@grammargirl
The people who respond to such queries, or who complain to news organizations about the purported misuse of shibboleths, are a very, very, very tiny proportion of language users. -
@grammargirl
As I regularly report, when I ask my students about this (Ivy-League graduate writing students), for the last several years not a single one has even been aware of a "hopefully" controversy, let alone had an opinion on it.@jessesheidlower I'm kind of trying to recreate the most recent survey Garner said he did, but I'm using the sentence from AHD surveys and tried to frame it in a less leading way than Garner.
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@grammargirl That feels like a pedantry battle no one’s fighting anymore. It felt very old fashioned to me the first time I read it (Strunk & White?) decades ago.
@overholt @grammargirl I tend toward the rigid side of language disputes, but I gave up on “hopefully” when the AP Stylebook did. Languages change.
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@grammargirl
The people who respond to such queries, or who complain to news organizations about the purported misuse of shibboleths, are a very, very, very tiny proportion of language users.@jessesheidlower Definitely. Still, I ask questions like this intermittently, and the reaction to this seems stronger than to some other questions. No matter what, much, much stronger than I expected.
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@overholt @grammargirl I tend toward the rigid side of language disputes, but I gave up on “hopefully” when the AP Stylebook did. Languages change.
@ClimateJenny @overholt But yes, anyone who follows "Grammar Girl" is likely to be on the prescriptive side, and I always try to remember that.
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
@grammargirl it’s good enough for Merriam to write a note about it and the reference links from Wikipedia are fun.
I say this as a born again disjuncter. I was one of those insufferable purists but as I’ve grown, I’ve started to enjoy the flourish and clarity that bastardisation of “official” language can bring. Now I bastardise with gleeful abandon.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topic
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
@grammargirl yes, with the headcanon that "Hopefully" is an absolute of the "ablative/genitive/nominative/locative absolute" family.
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
@grammargirl I learned this as incorrect, and I avoid using it in writing, but I know I use it in casual conversation.
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
@grammargirl Strangely, I would! Interestingly, that would not mean I was using it strangely. Fortunately. Oddly, some people object to it.
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
@grammargirl As a teenager, I went through a phase of replacing “hopefully” with “sperably” in my writing (note that I was studying Latin at the time); but I could never bring myself to use it in speech, and eventually I dropped it in writing as well.
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
"I hope the treaty will be ratified."
Beginning with hopefully (somewhat) separates the speaker from the wish, as if they want to hedge their bet.
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I know of the objections to this use of hopefully but I don't care. It feels natural to me. And I've just realised that German has "hoffentlich" for this use case and does not need to say "hoffnungsvoll" - possibly a word that English lost at some point?
@sista_ray @grammargirl The objections make no sense to me. It seems no different from "fortunately", "apparently", "oddly", "obviously", "unusually", etc. I don't think anyone would interpret "Fortunately, the treaty was ratified" as saying the treaty experienced good fortune, for example. The adverb obviously applies to the situation expressed by the whole clause, not just to one element within it.
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@sista_ray @grammargirl The objections make no sense to me. It seems no different from "fortunately", "apparently", "oddly", "obviously", "unusually", etc. I don't think anyone would interpret "Fortunately, the treaty was ratified" as saying the treaty experienced good fortune, for example. The adverb obviously applies to the situation expressed by the whole clause, not just to one element within it.
@sista_ray @grammargirl "Hopefully" *could* theoretically be interpreted as referring to the treaty itself, but I don't find that a natural way of reading it.
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@grammargirl I answered “yes,” but I hate it.
In less conversational writing, I’d probably reword it to say “I hope the treaty will be ratified” because saying “I am hopeful the treaty will be ratified” just makes you sound like an awkward pedant.
@ramsey @grammargirl For me that would change the meaning, though—I see "hopefully" more like "it is to be hoped that . . . " or "it seems reasonable to hope and cautiously expect that . . . ", I'd say. It's a comment about the appropriateness of hope, not a statement that a particular person is experiencing hope.
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Would you use "hopefully" like this in a sentence:
Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified.
(I'm going to compare how people feel about this sentence today to an older survey that used the same sentence.)
@grammargirl Yes, unless I suspected the audience would misinterpret me. I ENJOY using the word that way, because it drove my dad CRAZY.
