Why is "hopefully" bad English? -- was "Re: assumably"

Wilson Gray wilson.gray at RCN.COM
Sun Sep 26 21:50:35 UTC 2004


On Sep 26, 2004, at 4:42 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
> Subject:      Why is "hopefully" bad English? -- was "Re: assumably"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> I've always been puzzled about "hopefully" being dismissed as bad
> English.

You and me - or should that be "you and I"? - both, Ger.
-Wilson

> The German equivalent is "hoffentlich," which is not only perfectly
> acceptable but seems to be used more than "ich hoffe" (= I hope).
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
>> ----------
>> From:         American Dialect Society on behalf of RonButters at AOL.COM
>> Sent:         Sunday, September 26, 2004
>> Subject:           Re: assumably etc.
>>
>         <snip>
>> Nobody seems to be teaching that HOPEFULLY is "bad English" in the
>> snazzy high  schools that my students pass through.
>         <snip>
>



More information about the Ads-l mailing list