| Comment | "hopefully" = "it is to be hoped that..."
"Hopefully" is definitely much used in English and is by no means seen as a Germanism.
In fact, this word is the subject of a long-running dispute (several decades at least) on the proper use of this word, and authors of English style and usage manuals have felled forests of trees just to go on about it. (Garner's Dict. of Mod. Am. Usage has nearly a page on it.)
In the purest sense it means, or ought to mean (depending on whom you ask) "full of hope", as in, "John hopefully asked Mary to marry him".
But in fact, as Garner points out, "whatever the merit of those arguments, the battle is now over. 'Hopefully' is now a part of AmE and it has all but lost its traditional meaning."
It is now overwhelmingly used to mean, "it is to be hoped that" as in, "Hopefully, it won't rain tomorrow."
Due to the fact that the battle rages on, Garner goes on to suggest that it be avoided altogether:
"Avoid it in all senses if you're concerned with your credibility: if you use it in the traditional way, many readers will think it odd; if you use it in the newish way, a few readers will tacitly tut-tut you."
Most of the time it can be avoided by recasting the sentence, depending on whether the hope has an owner or is adrift: "I sure hope it doesn't rain...", "It would be a shame if it rained..", "What a pity if it rains...", "In the unfortunate event of rain tomorrow..", "If it rains tomorrow we would unfortunately have no choice but to cancel..." and so on. |
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