Wishes and regrets

1. I wish + past simple
I wish + past perfect
Wishes and Regrets

2. The expression I wish/if only… is
used in English to express wishes
about things that we want to
happen/change in the
present/future or and regrets about
things which happened in the past.

3. If we talk about a wish about a present or
future event, then we will use the structure
of the second conditional (if + past simple,
would + infinitive).
If the event we regret happened (or failed to
happen) in the past and is, therefore, impossible
to change, then we use the third conditional
structure (if + past perfect, would + have + past
participle).

4. I wish I had enough money to travel to New York.
(That is, I don't have enough money now, and I am sorry for it
because I can't go)
I wish I had had enough money to travel to New York.
(That is, I didn't have enough money to travel in the past, so I
couldn't go and now I regret it)

5. I wish I had enough money to travel to New York.
I wish I had had enough money to travel to New York.
Past simple= present/future reference
Past Perfect= past
reference

6. You can also use “if only” instead of “I wish”
with no change in meaning
If only I had enough money to travel to New York
(I would travel there).
If only I had had enough money to travel to New York
(I would have travelled there).

7. I wish you wouldn’t borrow my clothes without asking.
I wish it would rain. The garden really needs some water.
I wish you’d give up smoking. It’s really bad for you.
We use wish + would to talk about something in the
present/future that we would like to change – usually
something that we find annoying.

8. We can only use wish + would to talk
about things we can’t change
personally, so we don’t use it in the
first person
So I wish I wouldn’t eat so much chocolate
is not possible, although we can say
I wish I didn’t eat so much chocolate.