hoped + CLAUSE (polite)

Let’s look at how ‘hoped’ is used to make requests and orders less direct.  Even if we would usually say I hope + something happens, we can push the verb ‘hope’ into the past tense not to refer to time.  We often do tense shifts in English to express modality.  In this case, to express politeness, or to sound softer or less direct with what we ask from other people.  This is an extremely rare structure listed at B2 by Pearson.  This is why empirical research that the English Grammar Profile uses is so important.  This construction is most probably C2 or what advanced students might ever use.  The searches we did through many corpora all suggest past simple with a literal meaning.

Pearson’s GSE 59 B2 

  • soften orders and requests by using verbs like ‘thought’, wondered’, etc. in the past tense.
  • We hoped you ‘d come to our party.

We won’t cover the past continuous politeness construction: ‘was wondering’ or  past simple ‘I thought’ examples that Pearson gives because they have EGP equivalents already:

I was wondering if you could get me a ticket for the concert? (B2)

or

I thought perhaps you could help me. (C1)


You can see just how rare politeness with ‘hoped’ is by doing a search in the iWeb corpus for:

I|we hoped you _VM _VVI

1 I HOPED YOU COULD HELP 10
2 I HOPED YOU WOULD LIKE 5
3 I HOPED YOU ‘D SAY 4
4 I HOPED YOU MIGHT KNOW 3
5 I HOPED YOU COULD ANSWER 2


I|we hoped * _VM _VVI

1 I HOPED IT WOULD WORK 28
2 I HOPED I COULD GET 24
3 I HOPED IT WOULD HELP 22
4 I HOPED I WOULD GET 21
5 I HOPED I ‘D GET 20
6 WE HOPED WE WOULD GET 15
7 I HOPED THIS WOULD HELP 14
8 I HOPED IT WOULD COME 13
9 I HOPED IT WOULD GIVE 13
10 I HOPED I COULD HELP 12
11 I HOPED IT WOULD BRING 11
12 I HOPED IT WOULD GET 11
13 I HOPED IT WOULD LAST 11
14 I HOPED IT WOULD LOOK 11
15 I HOPED YOU COULD HELP 10
16 I HOPED I COULD FIND 9
17 I HOPED I WOULD SEE 9
18 I HOPED IT WOULD FIT 9
19 I HOPED IT WOULD GO 9
20 I HOPED IT WOULD HAPPEN 9