I wish she did vs. I wish she would do

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

Hello,

Could anyone tell me the difference between the following sentences when it comes to their meaning?

A: I wish Anna arrived on time.
B: I wish Anna would arrive on time.

Thanks for the help. :slight_smile:

2

A) is very unlikely to be the correct form. ‘I wish’ is not past tense but ‘arrived’ is.
‘I wish Anna had arrived on time’ makes far more sense - She arrived late, but you wish she had arrived on time.

I wish Anna arrived on time - is only used to indicate that Anna is always late. In this sense it carries the same meaning as your other sentence:
I wish Anna would arrive on time - this indicates that Anna is habitually late - she always has a tendency to arrive late, and you wish she didn’t. (This is the better of the two forms)

3

I see. How about if I say:

  1. If I knew his phone number, I would call him now. I wish I knew his phone number.
  2. If I had known his phone number, I would have called him yesterday. I wish I had known his phone number.

I’ve read on the book that the first sentence does not mean the “past”, but it doesn’t make sense to me because the verbs being used are in the past form. Do these sentences sound natural to native speakers?

Thanks again B :slight_smile:

4

Hi Nie,

Sentence A can be used if Anna habitually arrives late and you are unhappy about this habit. Although ‘arrived’ is a past form, it does NOT refer to the past. This is the same sort of use of a past form that you find in a type 2 conditional sentence. You could reword sentence A this way (which would probably be a more likely way to express this particular idea):

A2: I wish Anna weren’t/wasn’t always late.

(In the rewording above, ‘weren’t’ is more formal than ‘wasn’t’. Note also that the word ‘always’ is necessary in combination with the verb BE to achieve the sense that ‘late’ is habitual. Without the word ‘always’, the sentence above would refer ONLY to the fact that Anna is currently late – i.e. A2 would refer to displeasure about a current state if you omit the word ‘always’.)

As I see it, sentence B is similar in meaning to sentence A in this particular case. The use of ‘would’ tends to imply ‘willingness’. (You can look at ‘would’ as the past form of ‘will’.) Thus, there is a bit more of a sense that the speaker is saying that he wishes Anna were willing to stop being late all the time. However, when ‘I wish’ is used with ‘would’, the reference is often to a single, current activity that you are unhappy about.

Grammatically speaking, you can compare your sentence A to the following sentence:

a. I wish Anna didn’t smoke.

The fact is that Anna smokes regularly. Smoking is a habit for her. The speaker is unhappy that Anna has this habit and wants it to stop forever. I would also assume that the speaker wishes that Anna had never even started smoking because in that case, she would not have the habit now.

However, the following sentence might be used when you are unhappy only about a current/specific activity (i.e. a situation which Anna could easily change if she were willing to) rather than to a general habit:

b. I wish Anna wouldn’t smoke when the baby is in the room.

The situation for the sentence above might be that Anna is currently smoking in the same room the baby is in. The speaker is unhappy specifically about the currently on-going activity and wants that specific activity to stop.

[color=darkblue]_______________________________________________________________
[size=75]“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.” ~ Thomas Paine[/size]

5

Sentence #1 is a so-called type 2 conditional sentence. It does NOT refer to the past. The word ‘knew’ is used not only for the simple past tense but also for the subjunctive/conditional to talk about the unreal present/future.

Sentence #2 is a so-called type 3 conditional sentence. It refers to the unreal past.

The ‘wish’ sentences you posted earlier refer to the unreal (counter-factual) present/future.

[color=darkblue]_______________________________________________________
[size=75]“Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather.
It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will.” ~ John D. MacDonald[/size]

6

Thanks ESL expert :slight_smile: