Wishing someone the best

We join Cassandra in WISHING Eliana endless adventures in her future, an abundance
of friends always, and a family everywhere she goes. Eliana studied at NYLC for two years.
She's heading back to Brazil in December before she's off to Europe for more adventures.

So, have you thought of your wishes yet and how to say them in English? You may need to check out part 1 of this series first to review the rules. We learned that wishing meant wanting something that we didn't have. Grammatically, we use the past tense when we wish for something in the present. For example, if I wish I HAD a boat, it means I want to own a boat, but I don't have one now. In the next lesson, we'll cover wishing for something in the future and how wishing works in the past. 

For now, however, we will look at the word "wish" and one common usage that is not about wanting something that we don't have. In fact, another use of wish is when we express hope for another person. 

When we wish someone the best, or wish someone a happy birthday, or wish friends health and happiness, we are expressing our hope and desire for their good. Here are a few examples of this particular usage of "wish."

1. We WISH you a pleasant journey.
2. Aren't you going to wish me good luck?
3. Wishing you great success in your new career.
4. All of us at NYLC wish Eliana the best in her future.
5. We also wish all our students great success in their English learning.

This particular use of the word "wish" is not so difficult to practice as there are plenty of opportunities to wish someone the best at school. You can wish a friend the best in their upcoming TOEFL exam; you can wish classmates luck in their job or internship search or wish friends who are leaving the best in their future. 

Would you like to send your best wishes to someone? Feel free to do them here! Hey, why not? You can also send your wishes at our Facebook page or on Twitter! Just tag your them #ilovenylc. Wish you all the best!

-- Joe Yu, ESL instructor