Editor's Corner

From the vault of rules you may not have known about…

I was watching a LinkedIn Learning course recently, and the presenter mentioned that the word hopefully is often referred to as “the most abused word in the English language.” That got my attention. I don’t remember learning about this in any of my English or grammar courses over the years.

It turns out that the current usage of hopefully to mean I hope, as in “Hopefully, you’re as interesting in this subject as I am” started back in the 1930s, but the outrage really started in the 60s when, according to an article for NPR by Geoff Nunberg, it was called an abomination by poet Phyllis McGinley. Likewise, Historian T. Harry Williams called it “the most horrible usage of our times.” And I never even knew about it. Oops.

Want to know what’s wrong with it? Well first, let me share what else Nunberg said, because it made me chuckle (the italicized emphasis is mine):

So why did critics decide to turn this useful little adverb into the era’s biggest bugaboo? Well, you could argue that the very unreasonableness of the objections to "hopefully" helps make the rule an efficient badge of belonging. No one could simply guess the rule. Somebody who came to "hopefully" armed only with a keen ear for English grammar and style would have no way of knowing that anybody had a problem with it. You can only know about it if you’re the sort of person who reads usage guides or who has tea with others who do. It’s not enough just to be literate; you have to have pretensions to being one of the literati.

We all have our language pet peeves. I don’t like it when people use the subject I when they should use the object me. For example, someone who wants to annoy me might say, “You should drive to the party with Dexter and I.” That sentence is grammatically incorrect because if Dexter weren’t along for the ride, they would not say “You should drive to the party with I.” They’d say, “You should drive to the party with me.”

Lots of folks are upset over the misuse of there, their, and they’re. And I’ve also received many emails about how annoying it is that some people don’t know when to use affect vs. effect. But these folks in the 60s went nuclear over hopefully. I hardly think this grammar gaffe should be called an abomination—Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme was an abomination. But maybe you disagree. Let’s look at what the experts say is wrong with the way so many folks use hopefully.

The main argument against it is that it’s not clear who is doing the hoping. Take this example:

Reyna said to Dillon, “Hopefully, you will come to my party.”

What Reyna means is that she is hopeful that Dillon will come to her party. But the experts say that the literal translation of Reyna’s statement is that Dillon will come to her party full of hope. Why? Because you (meaning Dillon) follows the word hopefully, so Dillonmust be doing the hoping. If Dillon comes to the party, he will be filled with hope—for what, we do not know.

The advice from grammarians is that if you want to be precise (and I do, it’s kind of my thing), you should indicate who is doing the hoping. Rather than saying “Hopefully, you will come to my party” you should say “I hope you will come to my party.”

But Nunberg astutely points out that although the prejudice against hopefully is as strong as ever in some circles, we don’t see the same outrage over words like sadly, mercifully, thankfully, or frankly. Well, that’s confusing.

So here’s your takeaway. Now you know the “rule.” You know that if you use the word hopefully when you mean I hope, you may be judged by grammar geeks. You can decide whether to follow this rule, but I would suggest following it in professional writing only because you don’t want to appear to be unaware—like I was for so many years. I wonder how many people silently judged me.

Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry™

Pronouns she/her/hers

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About Editor’s Corner

Editor’s Corner keeps your communication skills sharp by providing information on grammar, punctuation, JHA style, and all things English. As editors, we spend our days reading, researching, and revising other people’s writing. We love to spend a few extra minutes to share what we learn with you and keep it fun while we’re doing it.

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