I've made a lot of mistakes

[Untaught88]

Hi,

Is "I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but thankfully I always try to learn from them" correct?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Hello, Untaught!

It's fine and natural for casual conversation, but there are some things you might think about to avoid being guilty of lazy English.

First, using words like thankfully, luckily, and hopefully that way doesn't make literal sense, even though it's common in informal conversation. It's saying that you're trying thankfully, when what you mean is that you're thankful that you try.

But is trying what you're actually thankful for? Maybe you mean that you're thankful that you're the kind of person who tries - or you're thankful that you have the time and circumstances that allow you to try.

So to make the statement absolutely logical, you would need to rephrase it or simply remove the word thankfully altogether.

 

[GoesStation]

I agree that thankfully doesn't work well here, but only because it looks like you are thanking yourself for your good attitude. There's absolutely nothing wrong with using hopefully as a disjunct to modify a statement that follows it. It's been used that way for several hundred years. Sadly, some grammar scolds in the 1960s discovered an apparent logical flaw in this. Thankfully, their voices are fading into the background.

 

[GoesStation]

Evidently some folks hold a deathgrip on discredited ideas.

 

[GoesStation]

Certainly!

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Really? "I hope" and "hopefully" mean the same thing?

I never got that memo! (And I really have made a lot of mistakes!)

 

[GoesStation]

When used as a disjunct, hopefully means "it is to be hoped that...." Everybody who says it or writes it in that sense understands it as such, as does everyone who reads it. Some grammarian took a close look at it once and said "Lo! An unremarked grammar peccadillo with which to assert my superiority! 'Hopefully' is clearly an adverb -- it says so, right in my dictionary! -- yet it isn't modifying another word in the sentence in which it's used!"

Who gave that cranky old sod (if I may borrow the expression) the right to disparage an ancient and honorable usage? Clearly not anyone with any sense.

 

[PaulMatthews]

"Hopefully" and "thankfully" not only have different meanings, but they are different kinds of adjunct:

"The fine weather will hopefully last for a few more days".

"Hopefully" is a modal adjunct here, though it's not about knowledge or probability as typically expressed by the modal auxiliaries, but desire. Which is of course where the paraphrase "it is to be hoped that" comes from.

"I've made a lot of mistakes, but thankfully I always try to learn from them".

Here, in the OP's example, "thankfully" isn't modal; it's an evaluative adjunct. The adverb doesn't mediate the way in which the proposition relates to truth; rather, the proposition that I always try to learn from them (my mistakes) is presented as a fact, and the speaker adds an evaluation which amounts to saying "I am thankful that this is true".

 

[GoesStation]

This thread reminded me of a friend from my youth who held some rather cranky views about usage, unbalanced by any understanding of grammar. It had never occurred to me before, but as I remembered him railing against the disjunct use of hopefully, I recalled that one of his favorite words was evidently. Ironically, he usually used it as a disjunct.