[Grammar] Wish + past simple or would?

[Fear not only believe]

I'm sure a lot of people have asked about the subject already, but I still have some unanswered questions.

I understand that we don't use the construction "I wish I would..."
I've found somewhere that "wish + would" expresses dissatisfaction, annoying habits, i.e. other people's behavior we want to change, and impatience. In light of that it seems to me that "I wish it would be Friday already." is possible, although "I wish it was Friday already." still sounds more natural to me.
What's right?

And how would you react to this situation: "My car is always breaking down."? I wish it wouldn't always be breaking down - that seems strange (to me), but what's then the correct option? Is the only possible solution: "I wish my car would stop breaking down."?

And what about this one: "I wish he found a job." or "I wish he would find a job."?
"Wish + past simple" appears to be used when talking about "unreal", highly unlikely things. Finding a job doesn't quite fall into this category, but the first sentence looks fine to me nonetheless.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MikeNewYork]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using "I wish I would". Where did you hear that?

 

[Raymott]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using "I wish I would". Where did you hear that?

How would you use it, Mike? If you wish you would do something, why wouldn't you just do it?

 

[MikeNewYork]

I wish I would meet a rich beautiful woman.

 

[Raymott]

Hmm, maybe that's American. I'd say, "I wish I met a rich beautiful woman" or "I wish I could meet ..."
Perhaps the OP read that in a BrE or AusE text.
To OP: There's nothing wrong with "I wish someone else would do something ..." as in "I wish he would find a job" or "I wish he found a job".
You can say about your car, "I wish it wouldn't keep breaking down."
I believe that "I wish it would be Friday" is incorrect.

 

[emsr2d2]

"I wish I would meet a rich woman" is unnatural in BrE. That would be worded one of the following ways:

I wish I could meet a rich woman.
I hope I will meet a rich woman.
I want to meet a rich woman.

 

[Barb_D]

Things like "I wish I would remember to just keep my mouth shut when she starts up her political rants instead of escalating the situation each time."


We can be annoyed at things we do or fail to do just as we are at other people or inanimate things.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I wish I would get a raise soon.

 

[emsr2d2]

This is a definite BrE vs AmE difference.

"I wish I would get a raise soon" would be "I hope I get a pay rise soon" or "I wish my boss would give me a pay rise soon".

Basically, we don't use "wish + would" in the first person singular.

 

[Barb_D]

What about an example like mine?

 

[MikeNewYork]

We can all rephrase sentences to produce the same result. My sentence was neither ungrammatical nor incorrect. It just does not fit the BrE usage pattern. The "rule" is an artificial construct.

 

[Tarheel]

"I wish I would" is possible. Perhaps:

I wish I would stop feeling depressed so much.

:-|​

 

[bhaisahab]

What about an example like mine?

I'd use "could" instead of "would" there, Barb.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I think Barb's sentence is fine. For me, there is a difference between "would" and "could" in those sentences.

It is similar to "I could kill him" and "I would kill him". They don't have the same meaning.

 

[emsr2d2]

What about an example like mine?

I had missed yours. Yours sounds a little less unnatural in BrE but I would say "I wish I could remember to keep my mouth shut when ..." or "Why can't I learn to keep my mouth shut when ...".

 

[emsr2d2]

"I wish I would" is possible. Perhaps:

I wish I would stop feeling depressed so much.

:-|​

Again, it doesn't work in BrE. "I wish I could stop feeling so depressed". As I said previously, we use it for all but the first person singular - "I wish you would stop being so depressed" works fine in BrE.

MNY - I didn't suggest your sentences were ungrammatical or incorrect - in AmE. However, they simply would not be used in BrE and because they're not used, most of us would tag them as at least sounding "wrong".

 

[Fear not only believe]

So many different opinions... Thank you all for putting an effort into this thread. Just one more thing:
"My car is always breaking down." I wish it wouldn't always be breaking down" is completely grammatically uncorrect, no matter what variant (AmE or BrE) is applied?

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would say "I wish it wouldn't break down so often."

 

[Raymott]

So many different opinions...

Yes, but that isn't such a problem. They reduce to only two basic opinions: Americans say "I wish I would" and non-Americans don't.