Hope refers to real possibilities about the present and future, while wish expresses impossibility or improbability and what one wants reality to be. Hopes use present or future verbs to refer to possible futures, while wishes use "would", "could", or past tense verbs to refer to unlikely or impossible situations. Wishes about the present use forms like "were" to indicate something is not true now. Wishes about the future or past similarly use forms like "would" or past perfect to show something is not expected or did not happen.
Hope refers to real possibilities about the present and future, while wish expresses impossibility or improbability and what one wants reality to be. Hopes use present or future verbs to refer to possible futures, while wishes use "would", "could", or past tense verbs to refer to unlikely or impossible situations. Wishes about the present use forms like "were" to indicate something is not true now. Wishes about the future or past similarly use forms like "would" or past perfect to show something is not expected or did not happen.
Hope refers to real possibilities about the present and future, while wish expresses impossibility or improbability and what one wants reality to be. Hopes use present or future verbs to refer to possible futures, while wishes use "would", "could", or past tense verbs to refer to unlikely or impossible situations. Wishes about the present use forms like "were" to indicate something is not true now. Wishes about the future or past similarly use forms like "would" or past perfect to show something is not expected or did not happen.
Hope refers to real possibilities about the present and future, while wish expresses impossibility or improbability and what one wants reality to be. Hopes use present or future verbs to refer to possible futures, while wishes use "would", "could", or past tense verbs to refer to unlikely or impossible situations. Wishes about the present use forms like "were" to indicate something is not true now. Wishes about the future or past similarly use forms like "would" or past perfect to show something is not expected or did not happen.
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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 Inference
Wishes I hope that they will It is possible that (can) help us. they will (can) help us. I wish that they would They probably will (could) help us. not (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 They arent here. about were here. the I wish (that) they They are not present were coming. coming. I wish (that) they They dont come came here more here very often. often. I wish they could They cannot come. come. Wishes I wish they were They are about going to come. probably not the going to come. future I wish they would They probably 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 + strike. I wish (that) past participle is used there hadnt been a with past wishes. The strike. past participle can be The negotiators didnt omitted if the meaning agree. We wish (that) is clear. That can also they had (agreed). be omitted. The negotiators In some cases, perfect couldnt agree. We modals (could [would, wish (that) they could etc] have + past have (agreed). participle) are used to express past wishes.