hopefully

hope·ful·ly  (hpf-l)

adv.

1. In a hopeful manner.

2. Usage Problem It is to be hoped: "Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring" William O. Douglas.

Usage Note: Writers who use hopefully as a sentence adverb, as in Hopefully the measures will be adopted, should be aware that the usage is unacceptable to many critics, including a large majority of the Usage Panel. It is not easy to explain why critics dislike this use of hopefully. The use is justified by analogy to similar uses of many other adverbs, as in Mercifully, the play was brief or Frankly, I have no use for your friend. And though this use of hopefully may have been a vogue word when it first gained currency back in the early 1960s, it has long since lost any hint of jargon or pretentiousness for the general reader. The wide acceptance of the usage reflects popular recognition of its usefulness; there is no precise substitute. Someone who says Hopefully, the treaty will be ratified makes a hopeful prediction about the fate of the treaty, whereas someone who says I hope (or We hope or It is hoped) the treaty will be ratified expresses a bald statement about what is desired. Only the latter could be continued with a clause such as but it isn't likely.·It might have been expected, then, that the initial flurry of objections to hopefully would have subsided once the usage became well established. Instead, critics appear to have become more adamant in their opposition. In the 1969 Usage Panel survey, 44 percent of the Panel approved the usage, but this dropped to 27 percent in our 1986 survey. (By contrast, 60 percent in the latter survey accepted the comparable use of mercifully in the sentence Mercifully, the game ended before the opponents could add another touchdown to the lopsided score.) It is not the use of sentence adverbs per se that bothers the Panel; rather, the specific use of hopefully in this way has become a shibboleth.

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hopefully

Adverb

1. in a hopeful manner

2. Informal it is hoped: hopefully I've got a long career ahead of me

USAGE: The use of hopefully to mean it is hoped used to be considered incorrect by some people but has now become acceptable in informal contexts.

Thesaurus

Adv.	1.	hopefully - with hope; in a hopeful manner; "we searched hopefully for a good position" hopelessly - without hope; desperate because there seems no possibility of comfort or success; "he hung his head hopelessly"; "`I must die,' he said hopelessly"
	2.	hopefully - it is hoped; "hopefully the weather will be fine on Sunday"

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hopefully

adverb 1. optimistically, confidently, expectantly, with anticipation, sanguinely

adverb 2. (Informal) it is hoped, probably, all being well, God willing, conceivably, feasibly, expectedly

USAGE Some people object to the use of hopefully as a synonym for the phrase `it is hoped that' in a sentence such as hopefully I'll be able to attend the meeting. This use of the adverb first appeared in America in the 1960s, but it has rapidly established itself elsewhere. There are really no strong grounds for objecting to it, since we accept other sentence adverbials that fulfil a similar function, for example unfortunately, which means `it is unfortunate that' in a sentence such as unfortunately I won't be able to attend the meeting.

Translations

hopefully [ˈhəupfulɪ] adv → con optimismo, con esperanza

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hopefully [ˈhəupfulɪ] hope adv (= expectantly) → avec espoir, avec optimisme (= one hopes); avec un peu de chance;

hopefully, they'll come back → espérons bien qu'ils reviendront

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hopefully [ˈhəupfulɪ] hope adv → hoffnungsvoll;

(one hopes) → hoffentlich;

hopefully, he'll come back hope → hoffentlich kommt er wieder

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hopefully [ˈhəupfulɪ] adv → con speranza;

hopefully he will recover → speriamo che si riprenda