Wish и if only

When you use it

You use wish and if only to talk about something you would like to be different but cannot change, or cannot change easily. It may be a present situation, a past event, or something another person keeps doing. If only carries the same grammar as wish and sounds a little stronger and more emotional.

The verb after wish moves one step into the past. That shift is the signal that the situation is unreal, exactly as in the second and third conditionals.

How it is formed

Wish is a normal verb: it takes -s with he, she and it, and it can be put into the past (she wished she had stayed). The subject after wish can be the same person or a different one. Were is the traditional form for all persons after wish; was is common in conversation and is not wrong.

Would after wish has a special meaning. It expresses irritation or a request about something that is not under your control, usually another person's actions or an external situation such as the weather. You do not use wish + would about yourself, because you cannot ask yourself to behave differently.

A different pattern, wish + object + noun, is a fixed way of expressing good wishes: I wish you a happy birthday. It has nothing to do with unreal situations and follows ordinary present-tense grammar.

Examples

• I wish I had a bigger kitchen.
• Anna wishes she spoke German better.
• Tom wishes he hadn't sold his bike.
• If only we had left ten minutes earlier.
• I wish you would stop tapping on the table.
• I wish I could swim.
• If only it were warmer today.
• Tom wishes the neighbours would keep their dog quiet at night.

Common mistakes

• ✗ I wish I have more time.
  ✓ I wish I had more time.
  In Russian and Ukrainian the wish and the real present sit side by side without a change of tense (жаль, что у меня нет времени; шкода, що я не маю часу). English shifts the verb into the past to show that the situation is only imagined. If you keep the present, the sentence reads as a report about the future rather than a regret.
• ✗ I wish I didn't say that yesterday.
  ✓ I wish I hadn't said that yesterday.
  Slavic languages have one past tense, so не сказал serves for both a regret about now and a regret about yesterday. English has two levels. A regret about a completed past action needs the past perfect; the past simple after wish points to the present.
• ✗ I wish I would be taller.
  ✓ I wish I were taller.
  Would after wish is for actions and behaviour, mostly other people's. For your own state, height, job or circumstances, use the past simple. The Russian хотел бы я быть выше contains бы, which looks like would, and that is where the confusion begins.
• ✗ I wish to you good luck.
  ✓ I wish you good luck.
  Желаю тебе удачи puts the person in the dative case, and the dative is usually translated with to. With wish, however, the person is a direct object and there is no preposition: wish someone something.
• ✗ I wish I could to swim.
  ✓ I wish I could swim.
  Could is a modal verb and takes the base form without to, in wishes as everywhere else.

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