# EN: J'aurais aimé avoir des cheveux rouges



## El_Belgaditano

Hello everyone, I was literally lying in bed thinking about the English vocabulary list I was studying before going to bed when I encountered a big problem (I know this sentence is too long and not so beautiful but I don't know how to express it in a better way).

So here is the problem, I was trying to translate in my head "J'aurais aimé avoir des cheveux rouges" ("I wish I had red hair") in english. But I didn't know how to do it and that's why I've been looking for the answer on this wonderful forum for one hour now.

I found that I should say "I wish I had red hair". But the fact is that I was trying to express it using "I would have liked". So I tought "I would have liked to have red hair" (or maybe "I would have liked having red hair" beacause it sounds better). I feel that this frenchy translation is horrible for your eyes but this is the only translation I feel mentally comfortable with. 

My main questions are the following : Is my translation acceptable ? If it isn't, How bad is it ? And why can't we express any wish of this kind with "I would have liked" ?


I'm new here so if I have broken any forum's rule please let me know !

Thanks you for reading me


----------



## Jektor

Welcome to the forums.
A literal translation in English would be something like:
"I would have liked to have had red hair".
"I would have liked to have red hair" is OK, but both are rather complicated ways of saying it.
I think most people would just say:
"I would have liked red hair"
"I wish I had (had) red hair"
_etc._
forum.wordreference.com - would-like-to-have-had.3808731
forum.wordreference.com - would-have-liked-to-have-had-a-wonderful-trip.3102447
forum.wordreference.com - I-would-have-liked-to-have-gone-to-the-party.1915802
_etc._
.


----------



## Shadiac

_I wish I had_ would correspond to _J'aurais souhaité avoir_ in your given example. Hence, the translation of _wish_ to _aurais aimé_ is not entirely accurate.


----------



## Maître Capello

I beg to differ. The translation of _j'aurais aimé_ to "I wish I had" is perfectly fine and accurate. There are barely any differences between _j'aurais aimé_, _j'aurais souhaité_ and _j'aurais voulu_ for counterfactual hypotheses.


----------



## Shadiac

Well, I see them as different as I see "I wish I had" and "I would have liked to have". I mean, the meaning could be synonymous, but to me it's somewhat comparable to the difference between _Je t'aime bien_ and _Tu me plais_ in French.

"Wish you were here" = "J'aurais aimé que tu sois là"? Hmmm, I dunno, sounds _croche_ to me.


----------



## Maître Capello

Shadiac said:


> to me it's somewhat comparable to the difference between _Je t'aime bien_ and _Tu me plais_ in French


I'm afraid not. 



Shadiac said:


> "Wish you were here" = "J'aurais aimé que tu sois là"? Hmmm, I dunno, sounds _croche_ to me.


It doesn't. It is a perfectly natural translation of "I wish you were here." Just check the many existing threads about I wish.


----------



## Shadiac

Sure, but people write from experience. It's like saying "merci" in French, verbatim translation is "mercy", but we both know what it means. Being a verbatim guy myself, I never say to others in French "j'aurais aimé" unless I specifically imply to "have loved to"/"be delighted to", which is way stronger for me than to say "I would have liked to" and definitely not akin to me saying that I wish for it happen. "Je souhaiterais que tu sois là" is what I would say and see no semantic flaw in it whatsoever. =)


----------



## Maître Capello

Shadiac said:


> "Je souhaiterais que tu sois là" is what I would say and see no semantic flaw in it whatsoever.


Except this is rather the translation of _I would like you to be here_, not of _I wish you were here_. 

Please mind the following nuance:

_j'aurais aimé/voulu_ = I wish + past subjunctive
_j'aimerais/voudrais/souhaiterais_ = I would like
Using the original sentence in this thread:

_J'aurais aimé/voulu avoir les cheveux roux_ = I wish I had red hair.
_J'aimerais/voudrais/souhaiterais avoir les cheveux roux_ = I would like to have red hair.


----------



## Shadiac

Sorry, but I'm not getting how do you translate a French past participle into a present one in English? _J'aurais_ clearly stands for "I would have" in case we're using it with a participle of a verb:

_Depuis l'enfance, j'aurais toujours voulu avoir des cheveux roux, mais aujoud'hui, je souhaiterais plutôt qu'ils restent châtains._

"Ever since childhood I've always wished to have red hair (ok, works), but today I would rather like it to remain brown."


----------



## Maître Capello

I rendered the correct *meaning* of the different phrases, not their exact *syntax*, which cannot be used verbatim as you strangely insist on using. Keeping the same grammatical structure would be a loan translation; it just doesn't work here.



Shadiac said:


> Depuis l'enfance, j'aurais toujours voulu avoir des cheveux roux, mais aujoud'hui, je souhaiterais plutôt qu'ils restent châtains.


The conditionnel passé makes no sense here. You should use the plus-que-parfait or the passé composé depending on the exact context and on the nuance you would like to convey:

_Depuis l'enfance, j'*avais/ai* toujours *voulu* avoir les cheveux roux, mais aujoud'hui, je souhaiterais plutôt qu'ils restent châtains._


----------



## Shadiac

Thanks for the correction, yeah, that was totally my mistake. I just brought up a bad example and in this case you are right.

However, pray tell, what is the correct translation of "J'aurais aimé avoir des cheveux roux" and "J'aurais souhaité avoir des cheveux roux"? They both are put in the past tense here, aren't they? Then, why is it "I wish I had red hair" in the end?


----------



## Maître Capello

Shadiac said:


> They both are put in the past tense here, aren't they?


Not exactly. They are both *counterfactual* wishes, whence the past conditional, which is *modal* rather than temporal here. You may think of it as something similar to the main clause of an implied counterfactual _si_-clause, e.g.:

_Si j'avais pu choisir, j'*aurais aimé/voulu* avoir les cheveux roux._


----------



## Shadiac

"If I could choose, I wish my hair were red"? Sorry, but that still doesn't make sense. "If I could choose, I would have loved to have my hair red" is much more suitable. The conditional tense implies a "could-would" liasion.


----------



## Jektor

Maître Capello said:


> I rendered the correct *meaning* of the different phrases, not their exact *syntax*, which cannot be used verbatim as you strangely insist on using. Keeping the same grammatical structure would be a loan translation; it just doesn't work here..


----------



## djweaverbeaver

Shadiac said:


> "If I could choose, I wish my hair were red"? Sorry, but that still doesn't make sense. "If I could choose, I would have loved to have my hair red" is much more suitable. The conditional tense implies a "could-would" liasion.


Your translation is incorrect. You rendered "Si je pouvais choisir", which is not what MC wrote.  It should be "If I could have chosen,...".

Also, _* I wish I had red hair*_ and *I would have liked to have red hair* means slightly differently things to me.  The second one is much more distinctly in the past; perhaps I no longer wish that at present.


----------



## Shadiac

Ok. Please tell me again how "If I could have chosen, I wish I had red hair" is proper English.


----------



## Maître Capello

Personne n'a jamais dit que cette phrase se disait en anglais.  Dans mon précédent message, j'ai seulement essayé de faire un parallèle avec les propositions conditionnelles irréelles.


----------



## Shadiac

Mais "I wish I had" n'est pas conditionnel, voyons! Ce que j'essaye d'expliquer depuis bien longtemps.


----------



## Maître Capello

Vous semblez confondre mode conditionnel et proposition conditionnelle. Dans la phrase _I wish I had_, le verbe subordonné (_had_) est au *subjonctif passé*, justement comme dans une proposition conditionnelle irréelle. 

_I wish I *had* red hair_ ↔ _I would be happy *if* I *had* red hair_


----------



## Shadiac

C'est donc le "had" qui est conditionnel et non pas le "wish", je vois. Là, ça devient plus clair d'où vous aviez sorti le "aurais aimé/voulu", c'est comme si on lirait "aurais souhaité".


----------

