I wish you didn't do that.

Question

Hi, everyone!I wish you didn't do that........I know that this sentence means that "I wish that you would not know", referring to the present time. But I wonder if it also means that "I wish that you had not known", referring to the past time.What is native speakers' sense of English in this part?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

pructusI wish you didn't do that..
I know that this sentence means that "I wish that you would not know"

Do? Or know? This seems confused.

know is a stative verb. The forms with wish are:

I wish you didn't know that. (You do know that.) (present)

I wish you hadn't known that. (You did know that.) (past)

[I wish you wouldn't know is incorrect. ... wish ... would ... is not used with statives.]

do is a dynamic verb. The forms with wish are:

I wish you wouldn't do that. (I wish you would stop doing that.) (present/future)
I wish you didn't do that. (You do it. I don't like that.) (present)
I wish you hadn't done that. (You did it. I didn't like that.) (past)

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks a lot, CalifJim!!

I was thinking several sentences, and being in a hurry, I made some mistakes.

But your answer solved all the questions.

I still have some more questions on this part. For example, (A) "He spoke Chinese as if he were Chinese". Though "were" is used here but, I learned that it's considered correct.

Also, (B) "If it were not for his assistance, they would have failed", is also considered correct.

People are easily misguided that (A) should be, (C) "He spoke Chinese as if he had been Chinese", because the referred time is past and (B) should be (D) "If it had not been for his assistance, they would have failed", for the same reason, this sentence referring to the past time event.

I guess (A), (B), (C), (D) are all correct, but I have not settled on some reliable concept of why.

I think this is some tricky and difficult part, if one is not native to English. Many books do not clarify in this issue.

Pructus · Answer

Thanks a lot, CalifJim!!

I was thinking several sentences, and being in a hurry, I made some mistakes.

But your answer solved all the questions.

I still have some more questions on this part. For example, (A) "He spoke Chinese as if he were Chinese". Though "were" is used here but, I learned that it's considered correct.

Also, (B) "If it were not for his assistance, they would have failed", is also considered correct.

People are easily misguided that (A) should be, (C) "He spoke Chinese as if he had been Chinese", because the referred time is past and (B) should be (D) "If it had not been for his assistance, they would have failed", for the same reason, this sentence referring to the past time event.

I guess (A), (B), (C), (D) are all correct, but I have not settled on some reliable concept of why.

I think this is some tricky and difficult part, if one is not native to English. Many books do not clarify in this issue.

CalifJim · Answer

if and as if do not work in exactly the same way, and the whole topic is a rat's nest of oddities and complexities.

Try this and see if it helps.

CJ

Pructus · Answer

Thanks....

I will take time to read it...

I wish you didn't do that.

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