I Wish You Would

Tonight’s song is fast and bright, but it’s full of regret. Two people have broken up. Each one wishes the other would come back, and nobody makes the first move.

Why doesn’t one of them just say sorry?

Good question. That’s exactly the grammar: I wish you would, I wish I hadn’t. Wishes for the present, the past and other people.

I wish this lesson were shorter.

Listen once. What does she wish he would do? What does she wish she hadn’t done?

Then answer Section A.

I wish you would come back. I wish it would stop raining. I wish you wouldn’t shout.

wish + person / thing + would = I want someone else to change their behaviour (often a complaint): I wish you would listen! Not with I: say I wish I could, not “I wish I would”.

I wish I hadn’t hung up. I wish I had called you. If only I had listened.

wish + past perfect = regret about the past: I wish I had studied more (but I didn’t). If only + past perfect is stronger.

I wish I were taller. (present) I wish I could fly. (ability) I wish I had gone. (past) I wish you would stop. (other people)

wish + past simple / were → present. wish + could → ability. wish + past perfect → past. wish + would → other people’s behaviour.

Jacob and Esau didn’t speak for twenty years. When Jacob finally came home, he was terrified. But Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him, and they both cried. Twenty years of wishing, in one minute.

And Achilles and Agamemnon quarrelled at Troy, and each waited for the other to give in, while their friends died. When Achilles finally said “let us forget the past”, it was too late for Patroclus.