“Hope (this or it) helps?

Question

Just wondering what's more appropriate, after reading this conversation

It's "Hope it helps" correct? or better "Hope this helps"? Practically, is better to use it or this?

Or it may depend if we are in USA, UK or Australia?

Answer 1

"Hope it helps" is not grammatically wrong. But there is a strong tradition of using "this" to refer to exactly this particular act of communication (e. g. a letter that we are currently writing).

Some set phrases that are used in letters:

This is to inform you...

I hope this finds you well...

(if one tries to look for ngrams of "hope this finds you well" and "hope it finds you well", the 2nd variant is not found at all)

So "Hope this helps" (which is something that, I guess, first appeared in letters and lives on mostly in emails, not in person-to-person "live speech") will follow this tradition and use "this".

Answer 2

Grammatically speaking it, this, and that are distinguished by their different meanings.

When you are talking about concrete nouns:

This: when you speak about something close to you.

This is my horse (you can tuch it).🐎

That= when you speak about something far a little bit but you still see it.

That is my horse (in the corner over there). > 🐎

It: when you speak about something that's not arounfd you. (Don't be confused with the object pronoun "it" which is same in spelling but different in function. For example in the sentence "I love it", that can talk about a horse that can be here around you, or a little bit far or not haround you at all. )

It is my horse (big, nice, and strong). 🐎

When you are talking about abstractive nouns:

This: when you speak about something that mentioned or immediately going to be mentioned and you want to emphesize it as if you point on it with your finger 👉.

This is my idea. (=I'm going to mention it or I just finish to mentioned it)

This is my idea: we should all go and helppoor people. Or: We should all go and helppoor people. This is my idea.

That= when you speak about something that 'far' from you by meaning of acception (or when you mention two ideas in which only one you like) or when you mention two or more things and want to refer to the previos one.

That idea does not make sense.

It: when you begin to speak about something generally without emphesize:

It is a big mistake to run immediately after heavy eating.

It means that you agree with me.

In conclusion, it depends on the context rather than on the country of origin.

I hope it helps.

Can refer to animal such horse. And then it means that you say: I hope that horse can help.

I hope this helps.

This refers to something very specific with emphesize on this rather than others!

You can look at "this" as if it functions as "bold letters" botton. Too much bold letters in a text is not nice. It supposed to be in moderatioon.

In fact, a lot of people don't follow these rules and don't necessarily distinguish between these words.