These questions ask you to connect a regret or irritation to the right time and source. Before choosing a verb, decide whether the problem exists now, belongs to a finished past event, or concerns behaviour that someone or something else could change.
Use time and agency as your guide
Start with the time marker rather than the visible tense of the surrounding sentence. Words such as now describe an unreal present state, so move one step back to the past simple after wish or if only. A finished occasion and an earlier missed action require the past perfect. For repeated behaviour, ask who can change it: would plus the base form fits another person or a recurring external event, but not the speaker's own knowledge, possession, nature or ability.
| What is regretted or desired | Construction to use |
|---|---|
| A state or ability that is unreal now | Use wish or if only plus the past simple. The grammatical past marks distance from present reality. |
| Something that did or did not happen before a finished past result | Use wish or if only plus the past perfect to show the earlier lost possibility. |
| A desired change in another person's repeated behaviour | Use wish plus would and the base form when the meaning is a request or irritation about future repetitions. |
| A desired change in a recurring external event | Wish plus would is also available when the source is outside the speaker and the event can recur. |
| An unreal present state with singular be | Both was and were are standard in contemporary British English; were is more formal, so formality alone does not make was ungrammatical. |
Where the mistakes come from
- A present form is kept after wish because the problem exists now. That makes the clause factual instead of unreal; use the past simple to create distance from the present state.
- The past simple is used for an action that was missed before a finished event. It does not clearly place the missed action earlier than the past result, so the past perfect is required for that completed regret.
- Would is attached to the speaker's own state or ability as if every wish were a request for change. For an unreal state belonging to the speaker, use the past simple; reserve would for another agent's behaviour or a recurring external event.
- The past perfect is chosen simply because the feeling of regret is strong. Strength does not set the tense: a present-time marker still calls for the past simple, while only a completed past situation calls for the past perfect.
Try it
Which sentence contains an error in the wish contrast between the speaker's own present state and another person's behaviour?
- I wish I would remember people's names more easily.
- I wish the driver would stop sounding the horn outside our building.
- I wish I understood the symbols on this weaving pattern.
- I wish the museum would open its side entrance on rainy mornings.
Select all sentences that correctly distinguish a present regret from a completed past regret with wish or if only.
- I wish I had known the new neighbours better now.
- I wish I spoke Mandarin more confidently now.
- I wish we booked the tickets earlier; the concert was last night.
- If only we had brought a thicker blanket on last weekend's camping trip.
Complete the sentence by regretting an action we had every opportunity to take but failed to take, not a lack of opportunity or ability: The downpour damaged our equipment last Sunday. I wish we ___ waterproof covers beforehand. (order)