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David Remnick Demonstrates the Correct Usage of "Hopefully"
Filed under: Eds. Tagged: David Remnick, TOTT
Even the national pastime was in danger. “But,” Gore added hopefully, “I have faith in baseball commissioner George W. Bush when he says, ‘We will find the steroid users if we have to tap every phone in America!’ ”There you have it. That’s how to employ “hopefully”; it means “with hope.” My mother taught me to say “with any luck” when the world’s bad influences whisper phrases like “Hopefully, I will win the Nobel Prize in Literature.” I pass that along to you, hopefully. If anyone is getting ready to recite that the English language is always evolving, I will globally warm them.
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Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
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Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
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Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
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Comments
The correct version of that sentence would of course be: “Hopefully, I will win the Nobel Prize in Literature, irregardless.”
On a tangent…it appears I am the one remaining person in the United States to understand that “critique” is a noun and not a verb. People prefer to “critique” because they think “criticizing” anything would be rude.
The latter usage has a kind of faux sophistication, although to my ear it just sounds semiliterate. (Especially given that my understanding of critique, even as a noun, comes via Kant and Marx, who use it to mean a form of analysis much more rigorous than casual evaluation.)
I realize that it is wasting my time complaining about this and that I should just continue to grind my teeth in silence.
As usual, I can’t but agree with McLemee: “critique”, in any realm outside of pure reason, seems to appeal because of its chintzy -ique ending, which gives it a gauze of genteel Frenchness.
As for me, I can’t abide “cliché” as an adjective (to say nothing of “clichéd”).
Scott—remember, criticism is only OK if it’s “constructive criticism.”
Yes — but keep in mind that, as Bakunin said, the urge to destroy can be a creative urge.
Bakunin, I mean.
One day I am going to write a book about Bukharin, Bakunin, and Bakhtin. That should be good for a nervous breakdown or two.
These torpid snow primates will survive the winter hopefully. To them, the glass is always half full.
Madison, I hope you know that whether the glass is half full or half empty, some primate is going to have to wash it.
Isn’t it annoying when you are criticizing the world’s usage mistakes and you make one yourself? (Scott.)
I have pretty much given up, and I now accept (kind of, sort of, grudgingly) “hopefully”—though you won’t hear it uttered from my lips.
But what I cannot abide is when one of my non-writer clients changes my “use” to “utilize.” Because it’s so much smarter-sounding to use three syllables than one, you know?