A grammar exercise on WISHING correctly

How good are you at WISHING in English? Have you read our four-part lesson on how to wish correctly? If you need a refresher, go to PART 1 to review wishing in the present, PART 2 to read about wishing someone the best, PART 3 for wishing about the future, and PART 4 for wishing about the past, also known as regret or blame. Once you're ready, try the following exercise. (You'll find the answers below.) GOOD LUCK!

1. Sarah wishes she _________ a larger oven. (She doesn't have a larger oven.)
2. Tom wishes Sarah _________ at the party. (Sarah was not at the party.)
3. John wished they __________ tear down the old, historic building downtown. (They will tear it down soon.)
4. Tom decided to go to the party. Now, he wishes he ___________; he's bored.
5. The Smiths own a beautiful boat, but sometimes they wish they ________. Maintenance is so expensive & they hardly use it.
6. They wish the kids __________ the horror movie. Now, they can't sleep.
7. When the job gets too stressful, Peter wishes he __________ the manager. (But he is.)
8. He wishes Sally __________ to his party. She's not going because she has to work.
9. She wishes she ________ to set her alarm. (She forgot to do it.)
10. John wishes he _______ sick. He'd be more productive. (He's not feeling well.)

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ANSWERS: 1. HAD   2. HAD BEEN   3. WOULDN'T   4. HADN'T GONE   5. DIDN'T   6. HADN'T SEEN/HADN'T WATCHED    
7. WEREN'T   8. WERE GOING/WOULD GO   9. HADN'T FORGOTTEN   10. WEREN'T/DIDN'T FEEL

-- Joe Yu, ESL instructor 

Wishing in the past: regretting & blaming

Tom didn't do well in his exam. He now WISHES he HAD STUDIED & DONE his homework more.

This is the fourth lesson in our series on how to wish correctly. If you need a refresher on how to wish in the present, check out part one; if you need to brush up on wishing about the future, check out part 3. Part 2 talks about wishing someone the best.

In this lesson, we will go over how wishing works when we talk about the past. Wishing in the past usually takes the form of regrets or blame. We regret when we wish we HAD DONE or HADN'T DONE something, and we blame someone when we wish the person HAD DONE or HADN'T DONE something.

If you notice, we use the PAST PERFECT when we express regret or blame about the past.

1. I wish we HAD STAYED longer. (We didn't stay longer.)
2. I wish I HADN'T DRUNK so much. (I drank a lot.)
3. I wish you HAD CALLED me first. (You didn't call me first.)
4. She wishes she HAD STUDIED for the exam. (She didn't study.)
5. They wish they HADN'T FOUGHT with the cops. (They fought with the cops. :-|)

Wishing for something different in the future

Tina, Beryl, Margaux, and others prepare for the TOEFL. Do you WISH universities
WOULD STOP requiring the TOEFL for admission? Well, they probably won't change
their policy anytime soon, but that's actually a good thing. Doing well on the
TOEFL helps ensure you will do well in college. The test is a gauge not only for
universities but also for you on how prepared you are for college coursework.

Now that you've WISHED your friends the best and learned how to WISH for something better or different in the present, let's look at how to WISH for something different for the future.

If you're in the intermediate levels, you know that you can talk about the future using a few different tenses. The future can be expressed with the simple future with "will," the future using "be going to + the ing-form of the verb," the present progressive, and the simple present. (Btw, look for a lesson in a week or two on how to use these tenses correctly to talk about the future.)

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.