Transcript Hope and Wish - GEOCITIES.ws

Hope and Wish
(Present & Future)



Hope and wish express different points of
view about the present and future.
Hope refers to real possibilities.
Wish is used to express impossibility or
improbability – that the speaker or writer
wants reality to be other than it is
Hopes verse Wishes
I hope that they will
(can) help us.
Inference
It is possible that they
will (can) help us.
I wish that they would
(could) help us.
They probably will not
(cannot) help us.



Hopes: present and future hopes are expressed
by using present or future verbs or modal
auxiliaries such as can in the dependent clause.
Wishes: present and future wishes are
expressed by using would, could, or a special
verb form – the subjunctive – in the dependent
clause. In most cases, this form is the same as
the simple past tense.
In formal English, were is used for all forms of
the verb be. However, in informal English , was
is sometimes used with I, he, she and it,
although it is not considered correct. Use of that
is optional in these sentences.
Examples
Inferences
Wishes
about
the
present
I wish (that) they were
here.
They aren’t here.
I wish (that) they were
coming.
I wish (that) they came
here more often.
I wish they could come.
They are not
coming.
They don’t come
here very often.
They cannot come.
Wishes
about
the
future
I wish they were going
to come.
They are probably
not going to come.
I wish they would (could) They probably
won’t (can’t) come
come next week.
next week.
Wishes about the past


Wishes about the past express feelings or
thoughts that did not happen, that are
contrary to reality.
To show the unreality of the wish, a
subjunctive form, which is the same as the
past perfect tense, is normally used in the
dependent clause.
Examples
Notes
The workers went on
strike. I wish (that) there
hadn’t been a strike.
The negotiators didn’t
agree. We wish (that)
they had (agreed).
The negotiators couldn’t
agree. We wish (that)
they could have (agreed).
In most cases, had + past
participle is used with past
wishes. The past participle
can be omitted if the
meaning is clear. That can
also be omitted.
In some cases, perfect
modals (could [would, etc]
have + past participle) are
used to express past
wishes.