'Wish to' can mean the same as 'I
want to' but it is much, much more formal and much, much less common. You
can say ‘I wish you luck/every success/ a happy birthday’.
e.g. I wish you every success in the future.
e.g. I wish you every success in the future.
I
saw Tim before the exam and he wished me luck.
I
wish to see the manager.
We say ‘wish somebody something’, but
you cannot ‘wish that something happens’. We use hope in this situation. For example:
I
hope you get this letter before you go away (not I wish you get).
We
wish you the best of luck.
We
hope you have the best of luck.
I
hope you have a pleasant stay here. (not I wish you have)
We also use wish to say that we regret something, that something is not as we
would like it. When we use wish in
this way, we use the past (knew/lived etc) but the meaning is present:
I
wish I knew what to do about the problem. (I don’t know and I regret this)
I
wish you didn’t have to go so soon. (you have to go)
Jack’s
going on a trip to Mexico soon. I wish I was going too. (I’m not going)
He
wishes he lived in Paris.
In more formal English, we use the subjunctive form
'were' and not 'was' after 'wish'.
I wish I were taller.
I wish it were Saturday today.
I wish he were here.
To say that we regret something in
the past, we use wish + had (had
known/had said):
I
wish I had known about the party. I would have gone if I had known. (I didn’t
know)
It
was a stupid thing to say. I wish I hadn’t said it. (I said it)
I wish I could (do something)à I regret that I cannot do it:
I’m
sorry I have to go. I wish I could stay longer. (But I can’t)
I’ve
met that man before. I wish I could remember his name. (But I can’t)
I wish I could have (done something) à I regret that I could not do it:
I
hear the party was great. I wish I could have gone. (But I couldn’t go)
You can say ‘I wish (somebody) would (do
something)’
It’s been raining all
day. Jill doesn’t like it. She said: I wish it would stop raining. (Jill would
like the rain to stop, but this will probably not happen)click this link to find some exercises that can help you with this topic
This is a matching exercise about wish, after you have finished the exercises they tell you if you have mistaken or not: http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/wish/exercise2.swf
Reference:
Murphy, R. EnglishGrmmarInUse, 2004, page82, Cambridge
I hope these exercises and the explanation can help you to understand the use of 'Wish' in sentences. Thank you for visiting the blog and if you have any doubt or complain please leave a comment.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario