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Hope and Wish (Present & Future)

This document discusses the differences between hope and wish in expressing possibilities about the present and future. Hope refers to real possibilities that could happen, while wish expresses something improbable or impossible. Hopes use present or future verbs, while wishes use "would", "could", or the subjunctive form to indicate lower likelihood. Wishes about the past also use the past perfect tense to show the wish contradicting reality.

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61 views6 pages

Hope and Wish (Present & Future)

This document discusses the differences between hope and wish in expressing possibilities about the present and future. Hope refers to real possibilities that could happen, while wish expresses something improbable or impossible. Hopes use present or future verbs, while wishes use "would", "could", or the subjunctive form to indicate lower likelihood. Wishes about the past also use the past perfect tense to show the wish contradicting reality.

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tu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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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 Notes

The workers went on In most cases, had + past


strike. I wish (that) there participle is used with past
hadn’t been a strike. wishes. The past participle
The negotiators didn’t can be omitted if the
agree. We wish (that) meaning is clear. That can
they had (agreed). also be omitted.
The negotiators couldn’t In some cases, perfect
agree. We wish (that) modals (could [would, etc]
they could have (agreed). have + past participle) are
used to express past
wishes.

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