Subjunctives with Wish/If Only

Subjunctives with Wish/If Only

Subjunctives are sentence constructions used to express situations that contradict

with the real situations.

1. Subjunctive with wish

Wish can be used with several different tenses: wish + past simple, wish + past

perfect, and wish + would + in􀂿 nitive.

a) Wish + past simple

This expresses an unrealistic desire for the present situation to be different

since there is very little chance of the change occurring.

Examples: I wish I lived in Australia.

I wish I had wings.

b) Wish + past perfect

This expresses a desire that an action or event in the past had been different.

Example: I wish I hadn’t decided to work in that company.

c) Wish + would + in􀂿 nitive

This expresses a desire for a situation to change either now or in the future.

The change could possibly occur but it generally depends on action from

some other persons or things.

Example: I wish he would give up smoking.

2. Subjunctives with if only

If only can be used instead of wish in all three constructions above. If only has

a stronger and unrealistic meaning than

Example : If only I had wings.