Writing Skills: Subjunctive Mood - "I wish I were Rich"

Today I would like to share some knowledge about the “subjunctive” English grammar. It may be a piece of cake for some students; however, it is not effortless for many ESL students. Introducing a variety of sentence structure in writing and speaking, makes us reach a little towards the native like speakers. Also, I am sharing subjunctive voice only with the word “wish” for today.

Image Credits

To get an idea of what the subjunctive is, I will give an example.
“ I wish I were with you.”

When we use wish as a subjunctive, it means imaginary. It is not true or real, and we know that it cannot be true in future.
To construct the sentence, we need to follow the syntax,
Subject + wish + tense verb (we must keep in mind that it not the tense verb that the situation is happening, but a verb that is one-step back to the actual tense verb) it might be little confusing. You can understand by the given example.”

Present

“I wish I were with you.”
Here the real situation is “ I am not with you” – simple present.
“I hate summers; I wish I were in a beautiful hill station now.”

So to construct a subjunctive, I need to think of one step back tense verb. Therefore, my sentence has “were” instead of “am”.
Please keep in mind that we never use “was” for first person in the subjunctive. Always use “were” even for first person subject.

Image Credits

Past

“ I didn’t spend much time with you” this is a simple past tense sentence. So to wish it now,
We would rather say, “I wish I had spent some time with you” so simple past is converted into past perfect.

Future

“You will not come tomorrow” this is a simple future tense, which can be written like this,
I wish you would come tomorrow” – will become would.

These are all hypothetical situation, and it is not real.
And the important thing one should consider is “wish” is not equal to “hope”.

Wish Vs Hope

When I say, “I hope” it means the thing or situation I am hoping might be true, or it might happen. There is a slight chance to it to become real. Whereas “wish” could never be right and it won’t occur in future.

To construct a sentence with "hope" we don’t have to look back for another tense verb. The same tense verb works here.
For example: “I hope I get a decent score in the test.”
“ I hope this helps you”
“ I hope she reached her home safely.”

It is important to understand that whether the situation is in future or present, just indicate in simple present tense.
“ I hope I will get a decent score in the test” this is incorrect.