Wish and if only in English: wish + past, wish + past perfect, wish + would, and why I wish I would is wrong

Wish is a conditional sentence with the if taken off. Everything you already know about the second and third conditionals applies here unchanged: one step back into the past for something that is not true now, two steps back for something that was not true then. The verb wish simply supplies the feeling that if leaves out.

Which means the hard part is not the pattern. It is accepting, once and properly, that the past tense after wish has nothing to do with past time.

The past tense is distance, not time

I wish I had a car is about this morning. I wish I knew is about this second. Neither sentence looks backwards; both use a past tense because English marks "this is not real" by stepping the verb back one notch. It is the same machinery that gives you if I were you for advice about right now.

So the rule is not "wish takes the past". The rule is:

• one step back (past simple) for something untrue now
• two steps back (past perfect) for something untrue then

Everything below is that rule with examples attached.

Wish + past simple: an unreal present

Use it for a present situation you would like to be different. The situation is usually one you cannot change, or cannot change quickly.

Note the flip: the wish is positive when the fact is negative, and negative when the fact is positive. Learners often say I wish I don't have to work, which tries to keep the negative in both halves. It is I wish I didn't have to work.

With be, careful English uses were for every subject after wish, exactly as in the second conditional: I wish I were taller, I wish she were here. I wish I was is everywhere in speech and nobody will misunderstand you, but were is the form for writing and exams.

Wish + past perfect: a regret about the past

Use it when the thing you would change already happened. This is the grammatical home of regret, and it maps one to one onto the third conditional.

The two-step is the whole signal. I wish I studied harder means "I would like my current study habits to be better"; I wish I had studied harder means "the exam is over and I did badly". Learners collapse these constantly, and the collapse changes the meaning rather than merely sounding odd.

If you want to spell out the consequence you are still living with, hand the job over to a mixed conditional: I wish I had studied harder becomes if I had studied harder, I would have a better job now.

Wish + would: complaining about other people

This is the pattern that deserves its own section, because it is the one nobody explains properly. Wish + would is not a third time frame. It is a complaint.

You use it when somebody else does something annoying, repeatedly, and could stop if they wanted to.

• I wish you would stop shouting.
• I wish he would answer his phone.
• I wish they wouldn't park across my gate.
• I wish it would stop raining. (the weather gets treated as a stubborn person, which is very English)

Three things follow from "it is a complaint", and they explain every restriction on the pattern.

First: the subject of would must be somebody other than you. I wish I would stop shouting is wrong, and it is wrong for a reason worth stating plainly: you cannot complain to yourself about a choice you are the one making. If your own behaviour is the problem, English gives you other tools: I wish I could stop shouting (it is beyond my control) or I should stop shouting (it is within it).

Second: the thing must be changeable. I wish she would be taller is nonsense, because nobody chooses their height. For an unchangeable state you need the ordinary pattern: I wish she were taller. This is why I wish it would be sunny tomorrow sounds wrong to a native ear while I wish it would stop raining sounds fine: stopping is an action, being sunny is a state.

Third: it points forwards. Wish + would asks for the future to be different, which is why it pairs so naturally with stop, start, hurry up and call me back.

Wish + could

Could covers ability and permission, and slots in wherever the obstacle is not a person's stubbornness but a genuine limit.

• I wish I could swim. (I never learned)
• I wish I could come tonight. (I have to work)
• I wish I could help. (I have nothing to offer)

This is the correct home for the "I wish I would" impulse. Nine times out of ten, the sentence a learner is reaching for is a wish + could sentence.

If only: the same grammar, louder

If only takes exactly the tenses wish takes. The difference is force: if only is more emotional, more literary, and more likely to end in an exclamation mark.

• If only I knew! (unreal present)
• If only I had known! (regret)
• If only he would listen! (complaint)

It can stand alone as a complete sentence, which wish cannot: you can say if only! and stop, but not I wish! in the same way. It can also take a full result clause, at which point it is simply an emphatic if: if only I had known, I would have come.

Wish and hope are not the same word

The line is possibility.

I wish you get the job is wrong; it should be I hope you get the job. The one place wish takes a plain object and no past tense is the set of fixed politeness formulas, where it means "offer as a wish": I wish you a safe journey, we wish you a happy new year, I wish you well. Two objects, no clause, no back-step. Treat those as vocabulary rather than grammar.

There is also the formal wish to, which just means want to and is a different word again: I wish to make a complaint. You will meet it in letters and airports and almost nowhere else.

Common mistakes

Ranked by how often learners actually make them.

1. Using a present tense after wish. I wish I have more time should be I wish I had more time. If the verb after wish is not one step back, the sentence is not finished.
2. Using wish where hope belongs. I wish you pass the test should be I hope you pass the test. Ask whether the thing can still happen; if it can, use hope.
3. I wish I would. Covered above at length. Use I wish I could for an inability, or I should for a choice.
4. Keeping the negative on both sides. I wish it doesn't rain tomorrow collapses two errors into one: it should be I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow, because tomorrow is still open.
5. I wish I would have known. This is the third conditional error wearing a different hat. It is I wish I had known. As with if, would never sits in the clause that carries the unreal situation.
6. Using was after wish in writing. I wish I was there is fine in speech, weaker on paper. Prefer I wish I were there.

Practice

Complete each sentence. Answers are below.

1. I wish I ___ (know) the answer.
2. I wish you ___ (stop) leaving the door open.
3. If only she ___ (tell) me before she bought it.
4. I ___ (hope / wish) it doesn't rain tomorrow.
5. I wish I ___ (be) better at this.

Answers: 1. knew (unreal present, one step back) 2. would stop (a complaint about somebody else's repeated behaviour) 3. had told (a regret about the past, two steps back) 4. hope (tomorrow is still possible, so not wish) 5. were (standard after wish for every subject)