Implied connotations of "I hope you will show a tiny amount of good behavior"

Question

Consider the following situation: Bob is planning to visit Smiths. Alice says to Bob:

I hope you will show at least a tiny amount of good behavior there. ⁽¹⁾

In my language (Ukrainian), when Alice says to Bob, I hope you behave well there has a connotation that Alice is almost sure that Bob will not behave well, but due to the reasons of politeness (usually, a pretended, false politeness), says it in a pseudo-neutral manner.

To emphasize the above, imagine if Alice says to Bob:

I hope you will not steal silver tea spoons from Smiths. ⁽²⁾
I hope you will not sleep drunk with your face in a salad plate.

Or, worse,

I hope this time you won't steal silver tea spoons. ⁽³⁾

This phrase, being wrapped in a polite form, is still "passive aggressive" against Bob. Especially if there's no evidence Bob has ever stolen spoons. Again, I'm talking about my language.

So, the question is, Is it the case in English?
Is there any hidden "passive aggressive" connotation in phrases (1), (2), and (3), or all they are absolutely polite? Let's limit the context to a situation when Alice has no evidence of Bob's prior misbehavior.

Answer 1

All three phrases carry passive-aggressive connotations in colloquial English, regardless of context.

I hope you will show at least a tiny amount of good behavior there.

Be sure your behavior is good while you are there.

The first sentence indicates Alice's belief that Bob does not show good behavior normally. It implies that it is unlikely Bob will behave under any circumstances, but that Alice must tell him this anyway, in case THIS is the time he actually does behave.

The second sentence may or may not carry similar connotations. Consider a hypothetical third person Carol, whose behavior is always good. In this case, Alice is simply reminding Carol to do as she always does. But applied to Bob, it could be taken as passive-aggressive or not. (We would need more context to figure that out.)

I hope you will not steal silver tea spoons from the Smiths.

This has two possible interpretations. The first possibility is that Alice refers to a previous incident where Bob DID steal spoons, and reminds him of it in the hope that he will not steal spoons this time.

The second possibility is that Bob has not stolen spoons from the Smiths, but due to his character and past behavior he is likely to do so. In this case, Alice recognizes this in him and warns him against it.

In either case, the intent behind the sentence is passive-aggressive with or without context.

I hope you will not sleep drunk with your face in a salad plate.

It is unlikely that this does not refer to a previous incident. It can be supposed that Alice was embarrassed by Bob's sleeping in the salad plate on a previous occasion and does not want it to occur again. It is highly passive-aggressive.

I hope this time you won't steal silver tea spoons.

This clearly refers to a previous incident. Alice is reminding Bob as strongly as possible not to do it again, while not actually saying "don't steal the spoons!"

Note that while it is not illegal in most places to sleep drunk with one's face in the salad plate, the theft of silver spoons is illegal just about everywhere. This "shades" the responses differently. Alice's annoyance with Bob is different if he merely embarrasses her (drunk in the plate), as compared with embarrassing her with a criminal act (stealing.)

Answer 2

What Alice says to Bob, regardless of any evidence of his prior behaviour, is certainly not neutral. It carries rather more than a hint of his tendency to misbehave.

If she just wanted to warn him of any possible trouble during his visit she'd have to say something like

You know what the Smiths are like. Do be careful what you say.