Which sentence is correct? Is there any rule for using any particular tense after the verb "hope"? We use these sentences in writing letters to each other.
- I hope you will be hale and hearty.
- I hope you are hale and hearty.
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1Why do you not think you can use either?– Michael HarveyCommented May 23, 2021 at 12:01
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1The verb tense will depend on whether you are expressing a hope about the present or about the future. I hope that you are well. - I hope that you will soon be well.– Ronald SoleCommented May 23, 2021 at 12:09
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2In English we often don't explicitly distinguish between "Present" and "Future" (for example, I will leave tomorrow, I leave tomorrow, and I am leaving tomorrow are normally equivalent). It's a slightly different context, but native speakers would often consider That's my final offer. I hope you're satisfied and ...I hope you'll be satisfied to be completely equivalent and interchangeable. When in doubt, you should by default normally choose the simpler verb form.– FumbleFingersCommented May 23, 2021 at 12:26
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1 Answer
If you said you hoped that someone "will be" well, that would imply that they are not well at present.
When writing a letter, you may expect a delay between you writing it and the recipient reading it, but that doesn't matter - we tend to write letters as they are meant to be read. For example, a common, if slightly formal way to express this in a letter is to write "I hope this letter finds you well", which literally means your hope is that they are well when they read it.
Returning to your example wording - if you hope they are presently well, you should write - "I hope you are hale and hearty".
answered May 24, 2021 at 14:36
