Question from Isabel S. (June 8, 2010):In a note to me recently, Isabel S. mentioned that she was having some health problems, so I made this wish in the closing of my reply: “I hope you’d get well soon.” To this, she made the following rejoinder:
Between us grammarians, would you consider it pedantic on my part to wonder why you used the indeterminate verb “would” in your second sentence: “I hope you’d get well soon”? Was that a typo?
Surely the correct, more positive way to say it is “I hope you get well soon” or “I hope you’ll be well soon”?
Saying “I hope you would be well…” sounds awkward, wouldn’t you say? Have you done a piece for your Forum on when to use “will” and “would”?
My reply to Isabel S.:You are not alone in thinking that the modal auxiliary “will” instead of “would” should be used in the sentence “I hope you’d get well soon.” Many people actually use “will” habitually in such constructions, and I get the feeling that this has actually become idiomatic in modern speech. But as I explained in a column that I wrote in
The Manila Times in response to the same question in June 2008 or practically two years ago, the grammatically correct modal auxiliary in such cases is “would,” and the same is the case for sentences with verb phrases of uncertainty like “wish,” “expect,” or “pray.”* The modal auxiliary “will,” on the other hand, is used for sentences with verb phrases of certainty like “am sure,” “are certain,” and “are positive,” as in these sentences: “I
am sure [that] you
will get well soon!” “We
are certain [that] you
will get well soon!” “They
are positive [that] you
will get well soon!”
IMAGE CREDIT: KADVA CORP.COMDo you say "I hope you'd get well soon" or "I hope you'll get well soon"?
It’s idiomatic and widely acceptable, of course, to use the form “I hope you get well soon,” but we need to remember that this is simply an elliptical form of the sentence “I hope
that you
would get well soon,” which, of course, consists of the main clause “I hope” and the relative subordinate clause “that you would get well soon.” To streamline the sentence for easier and quicker articulation, the ellipsis routinely gets rid of the relative pronoun and the modal auxiliary “would.”
Click this link to read my column “The choice between ‘would’ and ‘will’” now!P.S. Just an afterthought: I forgot to mention to Isabel that in informal usage, we can actually sidestep the modal distinction between “would” and “will” by simply saying “Get well soon” or “Do get well soon.” Of course, such informal usage will depend on the relationship between the speaker and the person being addressed, taking into account the seriousness of the ailment, seniority and age difference, their relative positions in society or in an organization, and various other social or professional distinctions. For instance, you don’t write your ailing boss “Get well soon”; it would be polite and good form to say “Please get well soon” or “I hope you would get well soon.” There will often be hairline distinctions in degree of politeness for every situation, and sensitivity to these distinctions in language is part of the social graces.
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*This is based on Definition 5b of “would” by the
Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary, as follows:
5b — used in auxiliary function in a noun clause (as one completing a statement of desire, request, or advice) <we wish that he
would go>
