If you are hopeful, you are fairly confident that something that you want to happen will happen.
I am hopeful this misunderstanding will be rectified very quickly.
我满怀希望这一误解很快就能得到澄清。
If something such as a sign or event is hopeful, it makes you feel that what you want to happen will happen.
The result of the election is yet another hopeful sign that peace could come to the Middle East.
这次选举的结果是和平有望降临中东的又一征兆。
A hopeful action is one that you do in the hope that you will get what you want to get.
We've chartered the aircraft in the hopeful anticipation that the government will allow them to leave.
我们包租了那架飞机,希望政府会允许他们离开。
hopefuls
If you refer to someone as a hopeful, you mean that they are hoping and trying to achieve success in a particular career, election, or competition.
His skills continue to be put to good use in his job as coach to young hopefuls.
在他给这些希望成为明日之星的年轻人担任教练时,他的技能继续得到充分利用。