One area in English grammar that English learners have trouble with is the language required to imagine something in the present or past, because the language to imagine something in English is often counter-intuitive (not what you would logically expect), which is using the past tense to describe the imaginary present.
When we use present simple tense to describe the present (ex. “go”) we are giving a fact, which means it’s true. Therefore, we need to use something different than present simple if we are imagining something that is not true. This is when we use the subjunctive mood in English grammar and past simple tense to imagine something in the present or future.
There are two common situations when we do this (using the past tense to imagine the present and future), which is when using “wish” and “if”:
WISH
The word “wish” is most commonly used to describe something that you want to be true, but it isn’t true. For example, when you say: “I wish I lived near the ocean”, you are telling us that you don’t live near the ocean now, so it’s being imagined.
You can notice in this example that the verb is “lived” (not “live”) to describe the imaginary present.
Here are more examples where the speaker is imagining something that is not true in the present but uses past simple to describe the imaginary fact:
I wish (that) I was a teenager again.
I wish (that) I had a job.
I wish (that) my country didn’t have so many problems.
I wish (that) my parents could visit me more often.
In each case above, the past tense verb describes something that we accept is not possible or not true nowadays. Even in the second example, I might be able to get a job in the future, but because I am using “wish” to describe having a job, it means I don’t have a job right now.
IF
Another common situation where we use the subjunctive mood is in a second conditional, which is creating a conditional to imagine the following:
Something that is not true: “If I were the President of my country…”
Something that will not happen in the future: “If I lived to the age of 200…”
Something that you think is unlikely to happen in the future: “If I went back to college…”
The hardest to understand is example c) because people think that going back to college in the future is possible, and it is, but when you use the second conditional and say “If I went…” you are communicating a message that says I don’t plan or expect to go back to college in the future.
Anything is possible but it’s not likely. If I am seriously considering going back to college, I’ll use present simple: “If I go back to college…”. In cases where you have no expectation of this future event happening, use past simple and create a second conditional ("if I went back to college")
USING THIS LANGUAGE TO DESCRIBE THE PAST
If you want to use “wish” or “if” to describe an imaginary past (the past that did not really happen), you cannot use past simple tense, because remember that we use past simple to describe the imaginary present or future. Therefore, we use past perfect tense (had + past participle = “had gone”) to describe the imaginary past:
I wish I had gone to the party last night
If I had gone to the party last night, I would have had fun.
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Practice
The examples below are incorrect because they are using the wrong tense for the time period that they are imagining (past, present, future). Make the necessary corrections so that the tense is correct:
I wish I own a car.
If I own a car, I would be able to drive to work every day instead of taking public transportation.
I wish I knew about the free concert in the park last night.
If I knew about the free concert last night, I would have gone.
I wish that I have more free time these days.
If I have more free time these days, I would spend more time with my family.
I wish I studied more when I was in college.
If I studied more when I was in college, I would have gotten a better job.
I wish that the food was better at the restaurant last night.
If the food was better when we were at the restaurant, I would have eaten more.
My parents wish that I live closer to them.
If I live closer to my parents, they would visit us more often.
Answers
I wish I owned a car.
If I owned a car, I would be able to drive to work every day instead of taking public transportation.
I wish I had known about the free concert in the park last night.
If I had known about the free concert last night, I would have gone.
I wish that I had more free time these days.
If I had more free time these days, I would spend more time with my family.
I wish I had studied more when I was in college.
If I had studied more when I was in college, I would have gotten a better job.
I wish that the food had been better at the restaurant last night.
If the food had been better when we were at the restaurant, I would have eaten more.
My parents wish that I lived closer to them.
If I lived closer to my parents, they would visit us more often.
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