Wish sentenses
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As a result of this, this forum is now closed.
The English dictionary community team would like the opportunity to say a huge thanks to all of you who participated by posting questions and helping other community members.
We hope this forum was useful, and that you enjoyed being a part of it.
If you would like to get in touch with any OED-related queries, please write to
[email protected]
And if you would like to contribute suggestions to the OED, please do so by visiting: https://public.oed.com/contribute-to-the-oed/
Thank you very much indeed, and good bye!
The community team
Wish sentenses
Hi
John wishes he ........so busy.
1 . wasn't
2. wouldn't be
3. wouldn't have been
4. would haven't been
Which one is correct? Why?
Comments
John wishes he wasn't so busy. is the only choice that is grammatical and normal. It means that John is busy — busier than he likes to be .
The only other grammatical choice John wishes that he wouldn't be so busy is not a normal sentence. It means that somebody else, not John, insists on being very busy and John regrets it.
When wish is followed by a CLAUSE, the verb must be PAST TENSE. The clause must describe a situation which is not the case. In this example
In its usual sense, will is used for something we don't know — even if we think it's probable. But with wish we do know what's true — although we regret it.
If John doesn't know but thinks he may not be busy, he can use the verb hope
John hopes that he won't be so busy
The verb form would is the PAST TENSE of will, so it's only right if the whole sentence is PAST
John hoped that he wouldn't be so busy
That strange sentence is grammatical only because will is used to mean 'insist'. Even then it only makes sense if he refers to somebody else. It makes no sense to say that John regrets that he (John) insists on being busy.
I can't think of any meaning that would allow wouldn't have been or would have been after any form of wish. Not after John wishes and not even after John wished.
The way we use wish in a PAST sentence is to use PAST PERFECT in the OBJECT CLAUSE
John wished he hadn't been so busy.
Number 1 (and I decided that before reading David's post, ha ha)