Language Quiz

Here's a new quiz - though, as always, maybe there's nothing wrong.

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The previous quiz was:

The host of Bargain Hunters sums up the rules of the show:

The contestants get 200 pounds and go out into a fair; they only get one hour and "they buy something they think is a bargain. It goes into an auction and the name of the game is to make a profit. And hopefully if they do make a profit they get to keep it. What could be fairer than that?"

"Hopefully" can in fact be used as a sentence modifier, meaning not "in a hopeful manner" but "I say hopefully" - compare "candidly, verily, honestly, frankly" - none of them attract the ire that "hopefully" does, but they're all used in the same way.

But "hopefully" is the problem here. It's misplaced. As a sentence adverb, it has to modify the whole sentence, and here that means the implication is that the contestants might not actually get the money if they make a profit.

What he wants to say is something like "Hopefully they'll make a profit, and if they do they get to keep it.

And look here for Previous Quizzes, 37 so far.