HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES THAT WORK: Ron is hopeful that his children will follow in his footsteps and become doctors. Ron is hopeful that his children will not make the mistakes that he has made in life. Hopeful is an adj -------- and the verb is ' to be' ie Ron IS( in the state of being) HOPEFUL -----> BUT for that to work grammatically in a sentence we need to know why he is being hopeful!! However if the dialogue went as follows: James : I am sure your sons will follow in your footsteps and become doctors too. Ron: I am always hopeful! That is OK because the context for what Ron says is already set by James' statement. Hope that helps Kind regards Ryder

It's not ungrammatical but it's not very meaningful to be hopeful of a person without further context. You can be "hopeful of" a future thing or situation. Here are three real sentences from fraze.it: Now he has made the breakthrough, he is hopeful of making a more regular impact. (open, save, copy) guardian.co.uk We received a good hearing and are hopeful of a quick response to this question. (open, save, copy) crookwellgazette.com.au The injured Williams said yesterday that she was hopeful of playing in the Open. (open, save, copy) smh.com.au An easier construction to master is: hope to + verb e.g. She hopes to play in the Open. If the person who hopes is different to the person who will do or is doing something, then you need I hope that ... she is playing in the Open / she will play in the Open.

Ron wants to have children