English language help (2)

[Valixy]

Big confusion with STRUCTURES AFTER WISH now. Maybe someone can help me with this too...

As far as I understand:

Regret about a present action is expressed with WISH + SIMPLE PAST:

I wish I had a cat.

I wish you had a cat.

I wish it were sunnier.

Regret about a past action is expressed with WISH + PAST PERFECT:

I wish I had bought you a present.

I wish you had bought her a present.

I wish it had been sunnier.

When we want something that we find annoying to stop we use: WISH + WOULD + VERB:

I wish you wouldn't make noise.

She wishes it wouldn't rain.

Assuming the above is correct, what about the following? Are both structures 1/2, 3/4 possible depending on what I really want to express?

1. I wish my friends lived nearer. (I am expressing a wish related to the
present, they live far away at the moment, and/or it's almost impossible for them to live nearer?)

2. I wish my friends would live nearer. (I am expressing a wish related
to the future and/or it's possible for them to live nearer?)

And what about these ones?

3. I wish it didn't rain. (this means that it is raining at the moment
and I am simply expressing a regret?)

4. I wish it wouldn't rain.(This means that it is raining at the moment, I find it annoying and I wish it would stop?)

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I'm not looking for grammar explanations, I would just like to know if the 4 last sentences sound correct to you and you would use them in the contexts that come in red? :-)

[chinagirl]

My guess would be 2 and 4. I'll check with my daughter later but 2 and 4 sounds about right.

[Valixy]

Thanks again!

[KingZ]

1. I wish my friends lived nearer

Correct.

2. I wish my friends would live nearer.

No, because in this case, "live" is a present form of the verb "living". You could say, "I wish my friends would eat nearer", because they're currently stuffing their faces and you want to hear the beautiful sound of them chewing.

However, to say, "I wish my friends would live nearer" doesn't make much sense because it isn't a current action.

And what about these ones?

3. I wish it didn't rain. (this means that it is raining at the moment
and I am simply expressing a regret?)

4. I wish it wouldn't rain.(This means that it is raining at the moment, I find it annoying and I wish it would stop?)

Both incorrect. "I wish it didn't rain" means that you wish it never rained, ever. However, you wouldn't really say that in practice, because humans would die and you'd regret your wish almost immediately. If it rained last night and now you're pissed off about it, you'd say, "I wish it hadn't rained."

For the last one, you don't really use that, although it's technically correct in the case: "I wish it wouldn't rain so often." If it's raining currently and you want it to stop, you would say, "I wish it wasn't raining."

[Valixy]

^ There are far too many nuaces in the English language! Thank you!!!

[KingZ]

(If you need any further help, feel free to PM if you'd like)

[Valixy]

(If you need any further help, feel free to PM if you'd like)

Thank you...I most probably will with occasional doubts on the vocabulary or similar in the future, just very little things, not walls of text!

[chinagirl]

My daughter thinks 1,2 and 4 are right and 3 is incorrect. I hope she's right :-)

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She says 3 is incorrect because it means it rained before and not at the present moment.

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Although now looking at #4 sentence, I think this is incorrect because when you say I wish it wouldn't rain... That means you are expecting for a rain and you wish it would not happen.

[KingZ]

Tell your daughter: "The King said you're categorically WRONG."

[chinagirl]

She's right about #3 being an event that already happened. It's like saying "I wish he didn't die", which means that the person is already dead and is not in a dying phase.

#4 I'm not sure..

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I don't think she's close to being the "princess of wrong" yet.

[HeartIsAching]

Correct.


No, because in this case, "live" is a present form of the verb "living". You could say, "I wish my friends would eat nearer", because they're currently stuffing their faces and you want to hear the beautiful sound of them chewing.

However, to say, "I wish my friends would live nearer" doesn't make much sense because it isn't a current action.



Both incorrect. "I wish it didn't rain" means that you wish it never rained, ever. However, you wouldn't really say that in practice, because humans would die and you'd regret your wish almost immediately. If it rained last night and now you're pissed off about it, you'd say, "I wish it hadn't rained."

For the last one, you don't really use that, although it's technically correct in the case: "I wish it wouldn't rain so often." If it's raining currently and you want it to stop, you would say, "I wish it wasn't raining."

Pretty much nailed it.

[KingZ]

I don't think she's close to being the "princess of wrong" yet.

Nah. Searock holds that position. She has life tenure.

[chinagirl]

Nah. Searock holds that position. She has life tenure.

I don't think my kid would want to dethrone her anyway...

[Valixy]

My daughter thinks 1,2 and 4 are right and 3 is incorrect. I hope she's right :-)

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She says 3 is incorrect because it means it rained before and not at the present moment.

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Although now looking at #4 sentence, I think this is incorrect because when you say I wish it wouldn't rain... That means you are expecting for a rain and you wish it would not happen.

Thanks a lot, China! :-) I really am not surprised that there are a few different interpretations for those sentences as I had been on a few respectable grammar sites before asking on Love Forum and some of the examples there were pretty contradictory, even some of the rules they gave differred. My opinion at the moment is that this is quite a grey area of the English language where so much depends on the context and there are only basic rules that can't cover the whole topic subjective to so many different nuances. I'll look into it much more in the future, as for now I can only hope that there won't be many exercises of this type in my exam that's going to start in a few hours or clearer contexts will be be given at least.

Many thanks to you, your daughter and KingZ once again

[chinagirl]

Good luck Val...