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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Hopefully

Is this grammatical?

Hopefully, she'll call me tonight.
  

Top answer

American Heritage has this to say about this ongoing triviality: 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.

— Mister Micawber

  • American Heritage has this to say about this ongoing triviality: 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.
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2 Answers
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American Heritage has this to say about this ongoing triviality:

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 hopef
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OK, so go ahead and use it, right?
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