i wish the rain would stop

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

Hi,

I wish the rain ‘would’ stop. - subjunctive is used here ?
vs.
I wish the rain will stop. - ?

Is there any difference in meaning?

Thanks

2

Hi Rickyrocky,

‘Wishing’ is something that you want but it isn’t necessarily going to happen. ‘Will’ is used as a sort of auxiliary verb to express a future in a positive way and it follows that you can’t put ‘wish’ and ‘will’ together. ‘Would’ on the other hand is used to express a hypothetical (imaginary) future and that is why this sentence is the right one:

Alan

3

Thanks! =)

4

Hello Rickyrocky,

I hope the explanations below and Alan’s help you understand why “wish … would” is correct but “wish … will” isn’t.

faculty.washington.edu/marynell/ … /wish.html
Use wish … would to express dissatisfaction or irritation because somebody keeps on doing something that you don’t like or an unpleasant situation persists.

englishbaby.com/lessons/gram … nreal_past
When we want to talk about situations we are not happy about and where we want someone else to change them, we use to wish followed by would + infinitive:

  • I wish he would stop smoking. (= I don’t like it, I want him to change it)
  • I wish you would go away. (= I don’t want you here, I want you to take some action)
  • I wish you wouldn’t squeeze the toothpaste from the middle! (= I want you to change your habits.)