How to Talk about Hope in English | Present, Past, and Future

I hope. I hope you have a good day.

I hope we get some good weather this weekend.

I hope I get to spend some time abroad this year.

Using the word hope in English seems fairly simple, right? Here's the thing.

The word hope can do so much more than simply express

what you anticipate or want in the future.

It can also highlight expectations you had. Expectations

of past events or expectations of people.

It can reflect on past desires you had as well.

On top of all of that,

using the word hope can be a way to express a kind wish to someone when

ending a conversation, for example, even with a stranger,

and it can help you ponder the possibilities of the present.

The simple word hope unlocks your ability to do all of that in English,

but here's a twist.

Using hope correctly involves more than just using the word itself.

It also involves mastering the art of time tenses in English,

the grammar that brings your sentences life and meaning.

Whether you're here to brush up on your English grammar skills or you're an

advanced learner aiming for fluency,

understanding how to use hope with precision across grammar tenses

is a game changer in today's Confident English lesson.

We're diving deep into the heart of English, tenses the past, present,

and future,

and we'll look at how hope evolves across those tenses.

By the end of this lesson today, with examples and easy to follow explanations,

you'll be able to express your hopes in English beautifully and accurately in

any situation.

Now, before we go any further, if this is your first time here, welcome.

I'm Annemarie, an English confidence and fluency coach.

Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your

life and work in English.

If you'd love to explore years of my Confident English lessons and get

free resources for me,

you can find all of that and more at my Speak Confident English website.

Let's get started. First with expressing your present hopes,

which may be the most familiar to you.

We're going to look at using the present simple and the present, continuous,

of course, with the present, simple, we're focused on things that are true.

It may be true that you want or anticipate something to happen,

and with the present, continuous,

we're focused on things that are happening now at this moment or things

that are temporary. I've got four examples to highlight this example.

Number one, we couldn't find the exact wallpaper you were looking for,

so we bought a couple of other options to show you. I hope that's okay.

Example two, there's a delay with the delivery.

I know you've been waiting for your order and that this is disappointing,

so I've gone ahead and provided a 10% refund and I've reimbursed

the cost of shipping. We hope that's okay with you in both cases.

I hope it's okay and we hope it's okay.

Those sentences express a general truth,

something that somebody really wants or feels in that moment.

Now let's take a look at two more examples where we combine hope with the

present continuous. I'm sorry to hear you were sick this week.

I hope you're feeling better now. Or if someone is currently on vacation,

you might say, I hope your trip is going well.

Now let's switch our focus to talking about your future hopes.

The moment I highlight future hopes with my students,

they immediately assume We're going to look at examples that use the word will

and English. If you're thinking the same to some degree, you'd be right.

We can use the word will when expressing our future hopes. However,

there are multiple structures we use and using will

is actually one of the least common. If you're not sure,

let's take a look at several examples that allow us to express things that we

wish for or desire in the future.

Let's take a look at these first two sentences.

I hope to travel abroad this summer. I hope I will travel abroad this summer.

Let's talk about the meaning first.

There is no difference in meaning between these two sentences.

Both are possible.

The first uses the structure of hope with the infinitive verb form and the

second we have hope plus will. The second one,

using the word will is less common.

Think for a moment about something you wish to do or wish to

experience in the future.

Try using that form of hope plus the infinitive verb. I hope to go.

I hope to see. I hope to visit. I hope to explore. I hope to speak.

How would you finish one of those sentences and now here are two more example

sentences to compare. I hope Maya comes to the party tomorrow.

I hope Maya will come to the party tomorrow. Once again,

both sentences express exactly the same thing. There's no difference in meaning.

The first uses hope with the present simple. The second hope with will.

Once again, the first one is more common hope with the present simple.

I want to share two more examples with you in this category of expressing things

that we wish for or hope for in the future,

and in these final two sentences,

we're going to focus not only on what you hope for in the future,

but also the specific date in the future by which you want

that thing to happen. To do this,

we use words such as by and before. For example,

I hope to complete my degree by next summer,

using by next summer.

It gives us that sort of ultimate goal deadline that we have.

Similarly, we could say, I hope you get your results before next week.

Now, in addition to future wishes and desires,

we can also use the word hope with a modal verb to express a polite

request or future possibility. For example,

I hope you can come to our backyard barbecue this weekend.

Here I'm expressing a polite request. It is of course a desire,

something I would like to see happen.

It's also a polite way to request that someone comes to your event.

Another example, I hope we might see each other again soon. Here,

we're focused on future possibilities. Now, of course,

we could argue that any future event is a possibility.

We can't predict the future. We don't know that things will happen for certain.

However, we can express a degree of certainty and in this case,

by adding that word,

might we introduce a little bit more uncertainty to it.

While we're on this topic of using hope with modals,

I want to go back to something I said at the start of this lesson.

I mentioned that we can use hope as a way to express a kind wish

to someone in a conversation, even a stranger.

Imagine you're at the grocery store here in the United States.

It's rather common to have just a little bit of small talk while you're checking

out, and let's say that in this case it's a gorgeous day outside.

You're having beautiful weather where you live.

As you prepare to end that small talk conversation and leave the store,

you could say this to the cashier.

I hope you can get out and enjoy some of this beautiful weather we're having.

It's an extremely kind wish to share with a stranger.

Before we move on to talking about past hopes,

I want to briefly look at three more sentences.

All three sentences will express the same hope,

but we're going to adjust it just a little bit so that we can really solidify

that understanding of how we might use the infinitive form hope plus the

present simple hope plus Im modal and so on to express the

same future wish sentence. One.

I hope Maya comes to the party tomorrow.

We have the present simple and we're using a time word, the word tomorrow.

That word solidifies that future focus. We could also use,

I hope to see Maya at the party, or I hope to see Maya at the party tomorrow,

and finally,

I hope Maya can come to the party or I hope Maya can come to the party tomorrow.

Each of these expresses a similar hope. In just a moment,

I'm going to ask you some practice questions so that you can apply what you're

learning, but before we do that, let's get into expressing your past hopes.

There are three reasons you might want to do this. First,

you might want to express a specific hope you have right now for

something that has already happened, something that is already completed.

In other words, something happened but you don't know the outcome yet,

so you're anticipating expressing your hope for what that

outcome might be. I'll share an example of that in just a moment.

The second reason you might want to express a past hope is to highlight

something you hoped for in the past, but it never happened,

that hope or that expectation wasn't fulfilled.

And finally,

you may want to highlight something that you started hoping for in the past and

that hope is still relevant now,

or you may want to indicate a future hope that you had at

some point in the past.

Let's really unpack all of that with some clear examples.

Let's start with that first reason. You might want to express your future hopes.

You want to indicate that you have a wish for something that already took place.

It already happened. You just don't know the outcome. For example,

I hope my daughter passed her board exams because we're using

hope with the past. Simple.

It indicates that you don't know yet what the outcome was.

You haven't heard the results you know that your daughter knows,

but you haven't gotten to talk to her yet. Here's another example.

Annie hopes her husband has found the car keys because she can't find them

anywhere in the house Again. In this example,

Annie has a present hope based on something that she doesn't have information

about yet.

She has no idea whether her husband has or hasn't found the keys.

So think for a moment about somebody in your life who is getting

results from something this week or today.

Do you have a hope for that final outcome?

If you do use this structure to express it.

Now let's move on to hopes you may have had in the past or

expectations you had in the past that were not fulfilled. For example,

I hoped I'd see Sarah at the meeting today, maybe next time. In other words,

she wasn't there. You had an expectation or a desire for that.

The event has already happened, that person didn't attend.

You didn't get to fulfill that desire or expectation.

Here's another example.

The government had hoped the public would forget about the scandal.

Here we're using the past perfect with had hoped

we're using wood the past form of will and forget what

happened in the end. What do you think the public did not forget?

The government had an expectation or a wish and it wasn't fulfilled.

Before we go on to the third reason to talk about past hopes,

I want to pause here briefly to look at the time tenses we've used in the

example. So far we've had hope plus the past. Simple.

We've had the verb hope in the past,

simple and in the past. Perfect.

I hope my daughter passed.

I hoped I'd see the government had hoped.

In each of those examples, you might hear the past continuous use,

the past perfect and so on with no real change in meaning.

For example, I hoped I'd see Sarah at the meeting.

I had hoped I'd see Sarah at the meeting.

I was hoping I'd see Sarah at the meeting.

Each of these indicates that hope you had that wasn't fulfilled and there's

little to no difference in the meaning. Now,

the last reason I mentioned for expressing past hopes is to indicate

there was something you hoped for in the future.

At some point in time in the past, for example,

my parents always hoped that my sister or I would attend an

Ivy League university.

Here we understand something that someone's parents always

wished for or hoped for. In the future, we don't really know if it happened.

There's no clear indication whether or not something did or did not

occur. All we know,

the major focus of that sentence is on what the wish

was at some point in time in the past.

If you think back on your life for a moment,

think about when you were a teenager.

Is there anything at that time that you hoped for in

the future? Is there anything that you hoped to accomplish in your life?

If so, you might use this structure. When I was younger,

I always hoped to and then continue. And finally,

here's one more example of a hope someone had at some point in

time in the past. After the interview,

I hoped they would call me the next day. I really wanted this job. Again,

we don't really know the final outcome.

We don't know if the company called that next day or not.

That's not the focus of the sentence. Instead,

what we have is the story,

the feeling someone had immediately following that interview.

Imagine someone you know getting a job they've wanted for years,

and in telling the story of how they got that job, the application process,

the interview process and so on,

they might use that exact sentence after the interview.

I hoped they'd call me the next day.

All the examples you've received today illustrate the flexibility of

using hope to express desires, wishes,

and expectations across timeframes and situations.

By understanding and practicing what you've learned here,

you will enhance your ability to express nuanced thoughts and feelings

in English. So let's practice.

I'm going to share three situations with you. For each one,

I want you to reflect on what you've learned in this lesson and identify a

structure you can use to express hope. Situation number one,

your friend has an important job interview tomorrow.

What do you hope will happen in that interview? If you want,

you can write down an example and share it with me in the comments below.

Situation number two,

one of your good friends is going to host an anniversary party with you for

another friend. You've already arrived and started putting up decorations.

You're waiting for this other friend to arrive and you're kind of excited to

show her what you've already completed,

the decorations that you've already put up.

What will you say to her when she arrives? And now situation number three,

you've missed a flight. I want you to think about this.

When you found out you missed that flight,

what had you hoped would have happened differently? Once again,

you can share your answers with me below.

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