Wish

Expressing wish When you wish that means you want to something or a situation to be different There are three different ways of expressing wish depending on the situation 1- When you wish a current (present) situation to be different For example:

wishes she were tall wishes he had money Someone who is short

or

someone who doesn’t have money

As you notice if we are supposed to express a current wish. We use the past simple of the verb I am not tall

I wish I were taller

I don’t have money

I wish I had money

2- When you wish a past situation to be different. We call this regret - the verb in this case is in the past perfect I didn’t study translation I wish I had studied translation I was careless. I lost my keys I wish I hadn’t been careless 3- As you want someone to do something or stop doing it because you think he can we call this a desire - We use would + the verb (stem) here because we mean the future - Some time expressions for the future are ( someday, one day, soon, tomorrow, the next week/month/year…ect) You want someone to stop shouting I wish he would stop shouting / I wish he wouldn’t shout You wish the government to ban smoking in public I wish the government would ban smoking in public

Exercise: Re-write sentence A so that it means the same as sentence B A- The corrupt official is in the prison now B- He wishes……………………………………………………………………….. A- You want government to punish corrupt officials B- I wish ………………………………………………………………………………. A- The ministry didn’t implement ethics at schools. B- I wish………………………………………………………………………………. A- You want the army to watch the borders B- I wish…………………………………………………………………………….. A- Law makers didn’t take strict measures to fight bribery. B- I wish…………………………………………………………………………..... A- I don’t have power to fight unethical behaviors B- I wish…………………………………………………………………………….. A- Someone wish to live in corruption-free country soon B- If only………………………………………………………………………. A- The criminal wish the judge to give him a second chance B- He wishes……………………………………………………………………….. A- He regretting having stolen the public funds B- He wishes………………………………………………………………………… A- Someone wishing to live without nepotism someday B- He wishes…………………………………………………………………………. A- Someone wishing people to stop eating fast food. B- I wish…………………………………………………………………………….. A- Someone wishing parliament to pass strict laws against corruption. B- If only……………………………………………………………………………………..