Expect Vs. Hope

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Expect vs. Hope vs. Wish vs. Look forward to

Dear Learners,

  1. I’m expecting a call from my girlfriend. ( I think she will call )
  2. I hope she can call me now. ( I want her to call me )
  3. I wish she would call me yesterday. ( I wanted her to call me )
  4. I’m looking forward to her call soon. ( I positively know she will call me )

I hope you like it. Love you.

2
  1. I wish she would call had called me yesterday.
    I wished she would call me yesterday.
    I wished she would call had calledl me yesterday.
3

Thank you very much for the corrections.
Love you.

4

Bees, can you really say, “I wished she would call me yesterday”?

It should be, “I wish she HAD CALLED me yesterday.”

“Would call” is the future conditional here, and yesterday isn’t in the future.

5

Mr. Beeesneees,
"I wish she would call had called me yesterday. "
The phrase ‘would call had called’ in the sentence gives me trouble to understand.
Could you please explain it to me?
Thanks.

6

I expected someone to question that because you have to think ‘outside the box’:

I wished she would call me yesterday =
I am thinking about yesterday when I wished she would call me either at that moment or sometime soon.

It’s not a usual usage, but I can see how it would work in this very specific way.

7

I’m not surprised it gave you trouble is that’s how you read it.

‘would call’ should be removed and replaced with ‘had called’. I’ve reformatted it to make it clearer.

8

9

Hi,

Perhaps the ‘would call … yesterday’ sentence works better if you change the word order: Yesterday I wished she would call me.

Any good?

Alan

10

I’d agree with that. Thank you.

11

Hello Jamie,

With wish both forms are correct only their meaning is different.

1.wish+subject+ would
(it expresses willingness/unwillingness)

I wish she would call me yesterday.= I am sorry she isn’t willing to call me yesterday.
I wish he could write me more often.= I am sorry he isn’t willing to write me more often.

2.I wish she HAD CALLED me yesterday=I am sorry she didn’t call me yesterday.
I wish I hadn’t spent to much money= I’m sorry I spent so much money.
(it expresses a regret about a past situation)

xxxxx

3.I wish she called me yesterday.= I am sorry she don’t call me yesterday.
I wish he was coming with us. =I’m sorry he isn’t coming with us.
(a regret about a present situation)

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But: wish+subject+ would
I wish he would answer my letter. (I have been waiting for an answer for a long time.)
I wish they could change the menu.(I’m tired of eating sausages)
(here this structure expresses dissatisfaction)

wish+subject+would ( with inanimate subjects; for exp. when you speak about the weather etc.)
I wish it would stop raining.
I wish the sun would come out.
I wish the prices would come down.

I wish you would…it is a possible request form.
I wish you would help me. (often implies) “You should have offered to help me.”
I wish you stop asking silly questions. (would imply that the speaker was irritated by the silly questions.)

Even one:
wish+would can replace by if only+would
if only more dramatic than wish
If only he would join our party!
If only he would answer my letter.
If only the sun come out.

But:
I wish you would can’t be replaced by if only.

Kati Svaby

12

[color=red]I wished she had called me yesterday.

Questions:

  1. The sentence above can mean----At some point yesterday I wished she had called me before that moment. Correct?

  2. It can also mean----At some earlier point today I wished she had called me yesterday. Correct?

By the way, what’s the difference between these two expressions:

  1. I agree with you/that.

  2. I’d agree with you/that.

Wait, some other questions about the word “agree” just came up:

  1. I agree with you.
  2. I agree with you on that.
  3. I agree with what you have just said.

Are these all okay?

now
Thanks

13

To Dear Learners and Coaches,

I originally meant to write the No. 3 sentence as
( Now ) I wish she called me yesterday.
I don’t care that she called or not. And I don’t regret whether she called or not. I simply just wish.

So, I should write the sentence as - I WISH SHE CALLED ME YESTERDAY. ( i.e - i wish that just now )

I should NOT write the sentence as - I WISH SHE WOULD HAVE CALLED ME YESTERDAY. **** because I don’t care for the result, I just wish .

I apologise for my sloppy sentence as I was in a rush .

Thank you all for your kind professional knowledge of English . I’m so proud of you. Love you.

14

Hello,

I was sticking to Jamie’s sentence so now this morning I saw I had made a mistake. What?
“I wish she called me yesterday.”-we express regret for a present situation so not yesterday but to-day/this day/this morning etc. would have been correct in the sentence.

I am very sorry.

wish

  1. -followed by the infinitive or object+infinitive
    I wish to leave.
    I wish you to leave. (In this thread we didn’t speak about this form.)

2-followed by past-to express regret for present situations.
I wish she called me this afternoon.

3.-followed past perfect tense to express regret for past situations.
I wish she had called me last day. or
I wished she had called me last day.

wish+subject+would structures are copied from the Practical English Grammar - so they can be correct.

15

I wish she called me yesterday. Does this sentence have a sense of regret ? I don’t think so.
Still, all of your sentence structures is wonderful. Sometimes rules can be bent and biased?
Love you.

16

Hello Mr. Kyaw,

I knew a little about using of wish.
Of course I had to control in the “A Practical Grammar English” written by: A.J.Thomson and A.V. Martinet.

This is a very logic grammar book and it is easily to understand. Here 231 and 286 articles.

231wish(that)+ subject+would

A. wish+subject+past tense can express regret for a present situation:
I wish I knew his address=I’m sorry I don’t know his address.
I wish that he wrote more regularly=I’m sorry he doesn’t write me more regularly.

(We have to know this meaning is in the present tense present-this is my explanation.)

286
…
wish (that)+subject + past perfect tense expresses regret about a past situation:
-I wish (that) I hadn’t spent so much money.=I am sorry I spent so much money.
-I wish you had written to him.=I’m sorry you didn’t write to him.

wish can be changed to wished as above.

-I wished I hadn’t spent so much money = I was sorry I spent so much money.

( After both wish or wished we continue with past perfect tense.-this my comment.)

Mr. Kyaw, now do you believe that this expresses regret. If I had mistaken then this Grammar Book would have mistaken also. I copied it word for word.

I believed this. I am curious if it can be disproved by our teachers ?

Bye:
Kati Svaby

17

Dear Kati Suavy,
Thank you very much for your kind highlighting. I can see the perfect grammar explanation. My problem is I can’t feel easily regret and that may be the cause that I was stubborn enough to convince the previous explanations. Thanks again.

18

Hello Mr. Kyaw,

This was good that you asked this question, it was very useful for me.

Regards:
Kati

19

Dear Kati Suaby,
Thank you very much. I do appreciate your academic knowledge as well. In fact I’m a pro standard, pro quality man. i.e I’m not for deviations and sub standards. I’m amazed you people’s savvy in this knowledge sharing.
I’m a avid learner of languages. I know a little German as well.
I regret to learn languages, wonder why?, because I started leaning late and I had not been very serious. If I was serious, I would already have had M.A Linguistics and I would have had a happier life.
I found English Test Net as a savior of my life. I love it.
As you know , If you have a knife that you’re fond of a lot, you’ll have to use it very often to keep it sharp. True to our brain.
I’ve never heard someone’s gone bananas/nuts or kicked the bucket by learning English/(Languages )
All the best my dear.
Love you.

20

Hello Mr.Kyaw,

I know the expression “kick the bucket” but “love banana/nuts” means the same or anything else?
I am getting on years, but in my age I became addicted of learning English. It is a good game for me. And its benefit, I can speak anyhow with my American grandchildren who don’t speak their mother tongue.

Regards:
Kati