The misuse of the word hopefully continues unabated. To say “Hopefully, Bill will remember to get milk at the store” is to say that when he remembers the milk, Bill will be full of hope. This is not what the speaker intended; what was intended was “I hope Bill remembers to get milk…”.
Hopefully is an adverb and can modify only a verb, adjective, or other adverb; in the illustration it can only modify the verb phrase will remember; the speaker wanted hopefully to describe what he or she was feeling, but missed and instead described Bill’s feelings. In the process the meaning of the sentence was completely altered in that the speaker’s apprehension is no longer there.
Solution: Jettison hopefully! Usher it out of your daily usage; it is difficult to use properly, and there’s a perfectly suitable substitute: I hope. I hope you’ll feel better for it.
A note on exaggeration: Gertrude Block, in her column “Writing Tips” in the current issue of the monthly Pennsylvania Lawyer compares two separately used terms, litotes and meiosis. Though they both describe understatement (as contrasted with hyperbole which is overstatement), they are not synonymous.
The comment “This is no small problem” illustrates litotes in that it is a negative understatement. The comment of a baseball player who has just had four home runs in one game: “I had a fair day at the plate today” illustrates meiosis where the understatement is positive.
Hyperbole tends to be abrasive and “noisy” (“Try this; it’s the best apple pie you’ll ever eat!”); litotes and meiosis usually are more subtle and often wry, and as such can be more effective in delivering a message.
Aside from the fact that these are two words of which I have been only vaguely aware, they demonstrate again the wonderful precision of our mother tongue.
— Ken Butera