Describing hopes and plans

Expressions for hopes and plans help you explain what you want to happen and what you intend to do. In business English, choosing the right phrase affects tone and clarity — from polite requests to firm commitments.

• Hopes: express desires or expectations (e.g., hope to, hope that).
• Plans: express intentions or arrangements (e.g., plan to, be planning to, going to, present continuous).
• Politeness: use would like to or look forward to for polite, professional tone.

Match your expression to how certain or polite you want to sound:

• Use hope to + verb or hope that + clause when describing desires or expectations.
• Use plan to, be planning to, or going to for intentions and arrangements; present continuous often signals a scheduled plan.
• Use would like to for polite requests; look forward to + -ing for positive anticipation.

Decide first: is this a wish, a firm plan, or a polite request? Then pick the appropriate phrase.

Learners often make predictable errors when describing hopes and plans. Watch out for these:

• Using the wrong verb form after an expression (e.g., after 'look forward to' use -ing, not the infinitive).
• Mixing future forms: using 'will' for fixed arrangements instead of present continuous or 'going to'.
• Confusing 'hope' (desire/expectation) with 'wish' (often unreal or hypothetical).
• Overusing 'will' or 'want' where 'would like to' is more polite in professional contexts.
• Using 'hope' plus an infinitive incorrectly; choose 'hope to + verb' or 'hope that + clause' appropriately.

Check verb forms and choose the future construction that matches your intended certainty and politeness.