Hope and Wish

(Present & Future)

 Hope and wish express different points of
view about the present and future.
 Hope refers to real possibilities.
 Wish is used to express impossibility or
improbability – that the speaker or writer
wants reality to be other than it is

Hopes verse Wishes Inference

I hope that they will It is possible that they
(can) help us. will (can) help us.
I wish that they would They probably will not
(could) help us. (cannot) help us.
 Hopes: present and future hopes are expressed
by using present or future verbs or modal
auxiliaries such as can in the dependent clause.
 Wishes: present and future wishes are
expressed by using would, could, or a special
verb form – the subjunctive – in the dependent
clause. In most cases, this form is the same as
the simple past tense.
 In formal English, were is used for all forms of
the verb be. However, in informal English , was
is sometimes used with I, he, she and it,
although it is not considered correct. Use of that
is optional in these sentences.
 Examples Inferences
Wishes I wish (that) they were They aren’t here.
about here.
the I wish (that) they were They are not
present coming. coming.
I wish (that) they came They don’t come
here more often. here very often.
I wish they could come. They cannot come.
Wishes I wish they were going They are probably
about to come. not going to come.
the I wish they would (could) They probably
future come next week. won’t (can’t) come
next week.
 Wishes about the past
 Wishes about the past express feelings or
thoughts that did not happen, that are
contrary to reality.
 To show the unreality of the wish, a
subjunctive form, which is the same as the
past perfect tense, is normally used in the
dependent clause.
 Examples
The workers went on
strike. I wish (that) there
hadn’t been a strike.
The negotiators didn’t
agree. We wish (that)
they had (agreed).
The negotiators couldn’t
agree. We wish (that)
they could have (agreed).
Notes
In most cases, had + past
participle is used with past
wishes. The past participle
can be omitted if the
meaning is clear. That can
also be omitted.
In some cases, perfect
modals (could [would, etc]
have + past participle) are
used to express past
wishes.