kibou ni tuite tomodati to hanasimasita.

希望 is read きぼう.

In this sentence, it means something like hope, wish, or aspiration. It sounds a bit more formal and abstract than some everyday words. For example:

• 希望 = hope / aspiration
• 夢 = dream
• 願い = wish

So 希望について話しました sounds like talking about hopes or future aspirations, not just casually mentioning a random wish.

について means about, concerning, or regarding.

So 希望について means about hope or about hopes/aspirations.

This pattern is very common:

• 日本について勉強する = study about Japan
• 仕事について話す = talk about work
• 将来について考える = think about the future

A useful way to remember it is:

• noun + について = about noun

In this sentence, に is not acting by itself. It is part of the fixed grammar pattern について.

So you should think of this as one unit:

• 希望について

not as:

• 希望に
  • something else

This is important because に by itself often marks things like direction, time, or target, but that is not what is happening here. Here, について as a whole means about.

Here, と means with.

So 友達と話しました means talked with a friend / talked with friends.

With verbs like 話す and 話しました, と is commonly used to show the person you had a conversation with.

Examples:

• 先生と話しました = I spoke with the teacher.
• 母と話した = I talked with my mother.

So in this sentence:

• 希望について = about hope
• 友達と = with a friend / with friends
• 話しました = talked

Both can be possible with 話す, but they give different nuances.

• 友達と話しました = talked with a friend
  
  • This sounds like a two-way conversation.
• 友達に話しました = talked to a friend
  
  • This can sound more one-sided, like you told your friend something.

So in your sentence, と is natural because it suggests a shared discussion about hopes or aspirations.

It can mean either friend or friends. Japanese nouns usually do not have a special plural form the way English does.

So 友達と話しました could mean:

• talked with a friend
• talked with friends

You know which one is meant from context.

If the speaker wants to make plurality clearer, they might say something like:

• 友達たちと話しました = talked with friends

But 友達 by itself is very normal.

話しました is the polite past form of 話します.

• 話す = dictionary form
• 話します = polite non-past
• 話しました = polite past

So the sentence is describing something that already happened: the speaker talked with a friend about hope.

If you changed it, the meaning would change:

• 話します = talk / will talk
• 話しました = talked

The plain past form is 話した.

Here is the set:

• 話す = dictionary form
• 話した = plain past
• 話します = polite non-past
• 話しました = polite past

So the plain version of the full sentence would be:

• 希望について友達と話した。

That sounds casual, while 話しました sounds polite.

The subject is omitted, which is very normal in Japanese.

So the sentence does not explicitly say I, we, or anyone else. Japanese often leaves out information that is obvious from context.

In many situations, English would naturally supply I:

• I talked with my friend about hope.

But depending on context, it could also be:

• We talked with friends about hope.
• She talked with a friend about hope.

Japanese often relies on context instead of stating the subject directly.

Yes, Japanese word order is more flexible than English, as long as the particles stay attached to the right words.

Your sentence is:

• 希望について友達と話しました。

You could also say:

• 友達と希望について話しました。

This means the same thing. Both are natural.

The main thing that keeps the meaning clear is the particles:

• について goes with 希望
• と goes with 友達

So even if the order changes, the roles stay clear.

No. Normally, Japanese would write this without spaces:

• 希望について友達と話しました。

The spaces in your example are just there to make it easier for learners to see the parts.

That is common in textbooks or beginner materials, but not in ordinary Japanese writing.