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Mitsuo23 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

hope vs a hope

Hi,

I will quote some of the definitions of "hope" from Longman Dictionary. 

HOPE
A. [U, C] something good that you want to happen in the future, or a confident feeling about what will happen in the future
- When I first arrived in New York, I was full of hope for the future.
B. [C] something that you hope will happen:
- She told him all her secret hopes and fears.

The Definition B is fine to me, but in what kind of context can "hope" be a countable noun in the Definition A?

Thank you for your help.
M
  

Top answer

In actual use, there is little practicall difference between the senses A. , and the plural can generally be used for both. ) However, there are certain situations where only the singular is used, for example: With food and water all gone and no rescue in sight, all I had left was hope.

— An0nymous

  • In actual use, there is little practicall difference between the senses A.
  • , and the plural can generally be used for both.
  • ) However, there are certain situations where only the singular is used, for example: With food and water all gone and no rescue in sight, all I had left was hope.
  • )
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1 Answers
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In actual use, there is little practicall difference between the senses A. and B., and the plural can generally be used for both. For example, in the sense A., you can also say: "When I first arrived in NY, I was full of hopes for the future." (Although the singular is perhaps more correct, from a strict grammatical perspective.)

However, there are certain situations where only the sin
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