Wishes regrets and preferences Wish is used to
- Slides: 10
Wishes, regrets and preferences Wish is used to talk about situations which we’d like to change but can’t because they are beyond our control. e. g. I wish I could swim. I wish they were here. Use the past tense when referring to a present state/situation.
wish If the situation happened in the past, then we use the past perfect (had+past participle) e. g. I wish I hadn’t bought that car. It’s costing a fortune in maintenance bills. They wish they had fixed the roof last summer. It’s leaking again! o
Wish + would Use wish + would to complain a present situation. E. g. I wish you wouldn’t smoke in the house. I wish he would stop teasing his sister. N. B. Do not say ‘I wish I would’ o
Wish + would - impatience o Use ‘I wish sth. would happen when we want sth. To happen badly. E. g. I wish it’d stop raining. I wish mom would come home soon. Careful: I wish it were Friday Not I wish it would be Friday.
Wish? /if only? o if only can replace wish with a slightly stronger sense of stress. e. g. I wish I hadn’t given the secret away/If only I hadn’t given the secret away.
I’d rather Use would rather to express a preference: 1. about our own actions: present state/situation: I’d rather live in Iceland than anywhere else in the world. past state/situation: I’d rather have studied medicine than English lit.
I’d rather 2. about someone else’s actions present situation use a past tense: I’d rather you did the washing up now. They’d rather we came this afternoon. For a past situation use would rahter+past participle: I’d rather you hadn’t told her the joke.
It’s time/It’s about time/It’s high time Use it’s time and it’s high time to indicate that something should happen soon (use the past tense) e. g. It’s time/high time Pálmi had a hair cut. It’s about time Jóhanna found a job and settled down.
It’s time to do. . . Use It’s time to do sth. To show that the moment for sth. To happen has come. e. g. It’s eleven o’clock already. It’s time to go to bed. I haven’t seen my relatives for years. It’s time to pay them a visit.
reference Hains, S & Steward, B. (2004). First Certificate Masterclass. Oxford University Press. Oxford.