# EN: I wish I was / were



## Gaspalet

Hi dudes !

I've got a question : at school I learned that this sentence was the only one correct : "I wish I were...". Yet in a lot of shows I hear : "I wish I was". Does these sentences mean the same ? Are they both correct ?

Thanks for your answers 

*Moderator note: *multiple threads merged to create this one


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## Maître Capello

Les deux phrases signifient la même chose, mais seule la 1re (_I wish I were_) est grammaticalement correcte. Toutefois, on endendra plutôt la 2nde… (Le problème est similaire au mode employé en français après _après que_ : il faut l'indicatif, mais la plupart des gens utilisent le subjonctif.)


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## Toadie

I do believe "I wish I was" is considered wrong.  Your observations aren't atypical, though.  The subjunctive mood is disappearing pretty quickly from modern English.  "I wish I was" is extremely common nowadays.  There are, however, slight nuances (which I can't explain, off the top of my head) between "was" and "were", in this case, but in any case, "was" would be wrong anyway.  The correct way of saying it would be either:
"I wish I were"
or
"I wish I had been"


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## wangshing

Yes it is because it is a wish, something that is not true or not YET true that you use "I wish I _were."  _Another example is "if I were." _if_ implies that it is not true not factual, something that can happen but has not happened...  I hope I'm explaining this clearly.


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## Toadie

I wouldn't say that it's something that can happen but has not...  People's definitions of what is possible are extremely varied .  Otherwise, your explanation is spot on.


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## yourmindisaradio

*I wish I was* is actually a grammatically correct structure. The rules change along with what people say, and the subjunctive is disappearing in English. Grammar books for foreign learners now teach both forms equally.


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## Misterman

Native speakers of any language obviously don't let the grammar book rule over them.  The *book *was written by some person; the *language *was not.  In informal conversation, "I wish I was" is always ok with me.  I think most Americans would say the same.


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## Toadie

Yeah, I hear you.  I personally do my best to avoid it, but it doesn't make me cringe when people use it informally.  Same goes for "me and X" as opposed to "X and I".


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## jujulicious

Bonjour à toutes et à tous,

J'ai besoin de comprendre la structure grammaticale de " i wish i were ( here ) " . Pourrait- on dire " i wish i was ( here ) " ?
J'ai souvent lu et entendu " i wish i were " mais j'ai quelques doutes ...( sur l'emploi de " here " aussi d'ailleurs ...)
Merci d'avance à toutes les bonnes volontés.


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## lingogal

Bienvenu(e) au forum! "I wish I were there" me semble plus logique que "I wish I were here" (parce que évidemment, je suis déjà "here"). Quant au "were", c'est le subjonctif, qui est correcte grammaticalement, mais beaucoup de gens utilisent "was", l'indicatif, à la place.


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## quinoa

On appelle aussi  ce "were" le prétérit modal. Il institue un irréel.


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## jujulicious

Merci beaucoup pour votre aide !!! 
j'étais un peu perdue entre prétérit et modalité ...
" There " me semblait plus logique en effet.
Je crois que je vais commander un bouquin de grammaire anglaise au père noël ! 

Le prétérit modal !!!! 
Oui, c'était bien cette notion "d'iréel" qui me posait problème !
Un grand merci encore pour vos explications.


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## The Morrigan

Hi,

I have read in a Ken Follet novel the sentence "I wish I was dead", but I thought you were supposed to say "I wish I were"; are both possible and in that case equivalent?
The same question goes for the sentence "If I were rich.." => can we say "if I was rich.."?
Thank you very much.


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## DroitDevantSoi

For the previous questions as to whether it is equivalent, that depends on whether you mean grammatically or colloquially. Colloquially, as has been shown before, they are equivalent because of common usage. Grammatically, they are very different.

"Were" should be used in clauses and sentences which convey _condition contrary to fact_, whether that condition is desirable or not. If the condition does not currently exist, "were" is explicitly demanded in a grammatical sense. Colloquial usage defies this, of course.

To use "was" in the above sentence has the same effect colloquially, but grammatically it means something different. The sentence "I wish I was dead" is not explicitly grammatically incorrect, but since it uses the past tense, it means "I wish there was a time sometime before now when I was dead." This is clearly not the intended meaning. Likewise, take the following conditional clause:
If I were the king of the world...
In the strictest of senses, this means, "If at some time in the past I had been the king of the world" (with the implication that this is not remembered). If, however, the speaker wishes to express that the condition of _being king of the world_ is not and has not been a previous condition but is one desirable, the grammatically correct phrase would be "If I were the king of the world..." Again, this doesn't matter so much in common speaking.

Hope this helps the latter questions.


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