Conditionals & wishes · CEFR B2 · Confident
I wish you would… — English conditionals
Wish plus would is a complaint about somebody else's behaviour, not a wish about a fact. It cannot be used about yourself.
The shape
wish + subject + would + plain verb
Complain about something somebody keeps doing.
In Hindi
wish के साथ would किसी और के व्यवहार की शिकायत है — अपने बारे में यह नहीं चलता।
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 |
|---|---|
I wish I would be taller. | I wish I were taller. You cannot complain about your own behaviour this way — a fact about yourself takes "were". |
Learn these first
These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.
Questions people ask
- What is the i wish you would… used for?
- Wish plus would is a complaint about somebody else's behaviour, not a wish about a fact. It cannot be used about yourself. In practice: complain about something somebody keeps doing.
- How do you form the i wish you would…?
- wish + subject + would + plain verb.
- What is the most common mistake with the i wish you would…?
- Saying “I wish I would be taller.” instead of “I wish I were taller.”. You cannot complain about your own behaviour this way — a fact about yourself takes "were".
Where i wish you would… fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
I wish you would… 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.
Practise the i wish you would… →