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Mkyol Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

A question about "I wish you had never been born"

Hello, I'm confused about the sentence "I wish you had never been born."

I don't quite get why the "had" is used.. is that making the sentence have past perfect tense? Or does it have something to do with conditionals? Couldn't you just say "I wish you were never born"?How are the two sentences different in meaning? Thanks.
  

Top answer

Hi Mkyol After "I wish", you use the past perfect form of the verb to refer to the unreal past -- like what you find in a type 3 conditional sentence. - I wish I had studied harder for my exam. = I did not study very hard for my exam.

— Yankee

  • Hi Mkyol After "I wish", you use the past perfect form of the verb to refer to the unreal past -- like what you find in a type 3 conditional sentence.
  • - I wish I had studied harder for my exam.
  • = I did not study very hard for my exam.
  • ) ------------------------------------------------- After "I wish", we use the past form of the verb to refer to an unreal or hypothetical present -- similar to a type 2 conditional sentence.
  • For example: - I wish I had a car.
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1 Answers
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Hi Mkyol

After "I wish", you use the past perfect form of the verb to refer to the unreal past -- like what you find in a type 3 conditional sentence.

- I wish I had studied harder for my exam. = I did not study very hard for my exam. (If I had studied harder for my exam, I would have passed.)

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