Hopefully plus present tense

[proximalhumerous]

When did this start happening? I've always viewed it as a construction that happens in the future, so I'd say, for example, "Hopefully she will remember to bring the milk," but now people seem to say, "hopefully she remembers..." Surely if it's something she is doing there's no need to be hopeful about it!

Similarly, "We are married for three years." I would say, "We have been married for three years" and I remember distinctly learning the construction was different in French where you do use the present tense.

Are people just losing the ability to use tenses other than the present?!

Ahhh, this is actually an incorrect use of hopefully. Hopefully is not another way of saying 'I hope that'; it is an adverb meaning 'with hope'. So you could say ' "I love cheese sandwiches", she said, hopefully', meaning that when she said that she was hoping that she would get offered a cheese sandwich.

Notwithstanding, in your examples, there are different, correct ways in which you can express a wish, using the present or the future tenses. "I hope that she remembers" is no less correct than "I hope that she will remember"

Yes, I know strictly (pedantically) speaking it's incorrect and "hopefully" does not equal "I hope that..." but it's one of those things that everyone says, even if you wouldn't use it in serious writing. We all know you don't mean that she will bring the milk in a hopeful frame of mind.

I wouldn't normally have mentioned it (I use it in the same way myself) because criticising other posters' syntax is a bit shit but, given the topic this thread is under (or 'under which this thread is'), I thought I'd indulge myself!😂