I hope you are feeling better soon. (Sure you are!)

Hiya,

Please consider the following sentence:

1) I hope you are feeling better soon.

The subordinate clause is in the present continuous tense with future reference. What I cannot see, however, is why this tense has been chosen in the complement. The thing is that the present continuous signifies an arranged future, and that is the problem: How can one or more people arrange the recovery by way of hoping for it? I would have expected instead the present simple or the will future in the subordinate clause:

2) I hope you feel better soon.

3) I hope you will feel better soon.

Does anyone have a clue? (I hope you do, it will make me feel better.)

Hucky

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hucky

The thing is that the present continuous signifies an arranged future

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1. The present progressive(or continuous) does not necessarily signify an arranged future.

'Emma's plane is landing at ten this evening - two hours late.' The 'arrangement' was for the plane to land at eight.

If they are still drinking when I get home, I shall be very angry. There is no arrangement there.

2. After hope we often use present tenses with a future meaning:

I hope he arrives soon.
I hope you are cooking dinner this evening.
I hope you have finished your homework by the time I get home.

It's not really a question of why we use a progressive form, but why we use any present tense form with hope (and bet). I have no simple answer to that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fivejedjon

1. The present progressive(or continuous) does not necessarily signify an arranged future.

'Emma's plane is landing at ten this evening - two hours late.' The 'arrangement' was for the plane to land at eight.

If they are still drinking when I get home, I shall be very angry. There is no arrangement there.

2. After hope we often use present tenses with a future meaning:

I hope he arrives soon.
I hope you are cooking dinner this evening.
I hope you have finished your homework by the time I get home.

It's not really a question of why we use a progressive form, but why we use any present tense form with hope (and bet). I have no simple answer to that.

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Thanks! I´d like to go briefly into some of the points.

As to your first example: As far as scheduled actions are concerned, wouldn´t the present simple be more appropriate here? What is the difference between the simple and the progressive form in that context?

As to No. two: Couldn´t it be that the reason why we don´t have an arrangement here is that the present progressive is used in a temporal clause. I´m not sure but doesn´t the arrangement-meaning take effect only in main sentences, just like: I am playing tennis tonight.
Or is there something like a double arrangement, e.g.:
I am seeing him tonight when we are playing tennis. Or does it have to be: ... when we play tennis.

So, if I have got that right, it is due to the verb hope that a present tense is obligatory here.

But what would be the difference between the two versions:
I hope you are feeling better soon / you feel better soon.

Is the present progressive a more emphatic expression of that hope? What about this form then:

I hope you do feel better soon? (If it is idiomatic, at all.)

Something else baffles me: If the verb hope rules out a future tense, how then can the present progressive (feeling better soon) have a future meaning? But the adverb soon seems to be indicative of it.

Can you bring clarification into the matter?

We normally use the future simple "will" to express hopes, opinions and assumptions:

• I hope you will feel better soon;
• I think Chelsea will win the match.

We also use the future simple in if-clauses and time clauses:

• If I win the lottery, I will buy a Ferrari;
• When he arrives, I will tell him.

Notice that we don't use the future in dependent clauses, even if the meaning is future - I will win the lottery / I will buy a Ferrari.

In Hucky's example

If they are still drinking when I get home, I shall be very angry

the present continuous does not express a future arrangement or a future situation, but an action in progress at the time hypothesised in the main clause - they will still be drinking / shall be very angry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by giustocci

We normally use the future simple "will" to express hopes, opinions and assumptions:

• I hope you will feel better soon;
• I think Chelsea will win the match.

We also use the future simple in if-clauses and time clauses:

• If I win the lottery, I will buy a Ferrari;
• When he arrives, I will tell him.

Notice that we don't use the future in dependent clauses, even if the meaning is future - I will win the lottery / I will buy a Ferrari.

In Hucky's example

If they are still drinking when I get home, I shall be very angry

the present continuous does not express a future arrangement or a future situation, but an action in progress at the time hypothesised in the main clause - they will still be drinking / shall be very angry.

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I`d just like to thank you quickly.

Take care!

Hucky

Hi there,

It was just yesterday when I was told that the verb to hope is ensued by a present tense. Yet, today I spotted the following example sentence in a very reliable source, in Micheal Swan`s Practical English Usage:

"My father, who we hope will be out of hospital soon, ..."

That does baffle me! - Any solution in store?

Hucky

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hucky

It was just yesterday when I was told that the verb to hope is ensued followed by a present tense. Yet, today I spotted the following example sentence in a very reliable source, in Micheal Swan`s Practical English Usage:

"My father, who we hope will be out of hospital soon, ..."

That does baffle me! - Any solution in store?

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Yes. The person who told you that was not giving the complete story.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fivejedjon

Yes. The person who told you that was not giving the complete story.

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Yet that was no one else but you. So will you please reveal the whole story? Come out with it! Don`t beat about the bush any longer! You are keeping me on tenterhooks. It might sometimes seem a Sisyphean task, but you have to do your part in fighting ignorance.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hucky

Yet that was no one else but you.

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You misquoted me. I wrote, emphasis added, "After hope we often use present tenses with a future meaning. I did not in any way suggest that we do not, or cannot, use will.

In any case, your example is rather different. 'We hope' is a parenthetic thought:

My father, who (we hope) will be out of hospital soon, ...

'Is' is unlikely in that sentence, though is natural in this one:

We hope (that) my father is/will be out of hospital soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fivejedjon

You misquoted me. I wrote, emphasis added, "After hope we often use present tenses with a future meaning. I did not in any way suggest that we do not, or cannot, use will.

In any case, your example is rather different. 'We hope' is a parenthetic thought:

My father, who (we hope) will be out of hospital soon, ...

'Is' is unlikely in that sentence, though is natural in this one:

We hope (that) my father is/will be out of hospital soon.

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To begin with, best thanks!

I´m sorry, but I haven´t quoted that very sentence anywhere. But I´m going to present you a quotation from your first message (1) and from the current message above (2). Here they are:

1) It's not really a question of why we use a progressive form, but why we use any present tense form with hope (and bet). I have no simple answer to that.
(emphasis added by Hucky)

2)I did not in any way suggest that we do not, or cannot, use will.

Since I desist from interpreting these two statements in themselves and in their relation to each other, I´d like you to give thoughts to it. They are worth contemplating.