[Grammar] Usage of 'Could'

[sky3120]

"I hope that you could understand it."

I think depending on context, we can get the sentence in more than two ways although I just can think of two ways.


1) After he is done with explaining, he can say the sentence and could is the past tense of can.

2) Could can be used for lower possibility than can and "I hope that you could understand it (soon, etc.)" can be used for the future.

I am sorry about lame explanations but my point is that depending on context, can we infer two meanings from the example?

 

[5jj]

Only the first suggestion seems likely to me: I hope that you were able to understand it.

 

[sky3120]

Thank you and I agree with you, but how about '"I hope that you could make her happy"? Is this never possible to be interpreted in two ways? I think depending on verbs and context, it might be okay or could you give me any possible examples if you do not mind? Thank you for helping me as usual.