Esperar

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by poli

I think it's simple (or at least I think it is).
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Hope has a prayer-like quality. Expect does not.

Yes, this is my problem with esperar. Hope and expect have to me such obvious different qualities, that it's impossible for me to see how Spanish can fuse them into one idea. Hope has an emotional attachment, but expect merely means that you think the probability of it happening is greater than 50%.

[SPX]

Yeah, an expectation is something of an assumption. If you expect something to happen then you believe that the odds are in the favor of it happening.

With a hope, you really have no idea what's going to happen, but you have a desire (a hope) for a certain outcome.