Conditionals & wishes · CEFR B2 · Confident
It's time you… — English conditionals
After "it is time" plus a subject, English uses the past tense to talk about now — the same trick as "wish".
The shape
It's time + subject + past · It's time to + verb
Say something should have happened already.
In Hindi
"it is time" के बाद कर्ता आए तो अभी की बात भूतकाल में कही जाती है — वही तरकीब जो "wish" में है।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
It is time you go home. | It is time you went home. After "it is time you", the verb goes into the past even though you mean now. |
Easy to confuse with
Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.
Questions people ask
- What is the it's time you… used for?
- After "it is time" plus a subject, English uses the past tense to talk about now — the same trick as "wish". In practice: say something should have happened already.
- How do you form the it's time you…?
- It's time + subject + past · It's time to + verb.
- What is the most common mistake with the it's time you…?
- Saying “It is time you go home.” instead of “It is time you went home.”. After "it is time you", the verb goes into the past even though you mean now.
Where it's time you… fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
It's time you… is a CEFR B2 structure — the confident band — and it belongs to conditionals & wishes. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.
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