pray that/for
hope that/for
keep fingers crossed that
Structure
- Verb[る/ない] + ように + (と) + 祈る
Used when literally praying for something or when expressing a hope or a wish for something]
[Sometimes 祈る is omitted, often when ように follows ます (「宝くじが当たりますように」)]
Can be rephrased to:
・といいな (if the speaker hopes for themselves, but not when actually praying)
・といいね (like といいな, but for others)
・ように願う, ように頼む, ように望む, ように希望する
Sorry if this is coming in too late, but in my (limited) experience with this grammar, the present progressive is always used when an individual describes an ongoing reason for/habit of praying. One case where it was 祈る instead of 祈っている was the below sentence:
毎年お正月に神社に行って、今年も大きな病気をしないように神様に祈ることにしている。
But as you can tell, that still ends up using the present progressive, it just gets pushed later on down the line.
For each review I’ve had on this grammar point, I’ve not been allowed to write ようにと～. I’m not sure if that’s intentional, but since the grammar explanation (both here and in the Tobira textbook) says there is room for the optional と, I figured I might as well bring this up.
When it says “praying” does this have the same feel as “praying” in the western religious sense? And is this still used regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof?
Still kind curious about this
@Johnathan-Weir
Good think you have bumped it! I wouldn’t have noticed it other way 
Yeah, Japanese use it quite often even if they do not pray at all or are atheist. Similar to English. You can think of it as “hope” in that case.
生きて街を出られるように祈る
I pray (or simply “hope”) that you can live the town alive.
I hope (
) it helps,
Cheers!
