[Grammar] Wishing/Wish you a safe and healthy holiday season

[kadioguy]

(On an e-card)

Wishing you a safe and healthy holiday season.

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a. Wishing you a safe and healthy holiday season.

b. Wish you a safe and healthy holiday season. (my sentence)

Questions:

1. I assume that 'Wishing' in (a) is a gerund, while 'Wish' in (b) is an imperative. Is that right?

2. However, are both correct and natural to native speakers?

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(Source)

 

[GoesStation]

No. Only "Wishing" works.

 

[kadioguy]

No. Only "Wishing" works.

Why? Can I say this is because imperative sentences imply a 'you' at the beginning, as in '(You) Go away', but the pattern doesn't work in the original, since '(You) Wish you a safe and healthy holiday season' doesn't make sense?

 

[GoesStation]

"Wishing you …" is rather a fixed phrase. It omits "I'm" or "We're". Logically, you could say that "Wish you" omits "I", but we just don't do that. It might be because it would look like an imperative. I don't know.

 

[Rover_KE]

'Wish you ...' is not an imperative—it should have 'I' or 'We' or 'The management and staff of ScoffWell Dog Chow Company'.

An imperative would begin 'Have a safe and healthy ...'

 

[kadioguy]

[...] An imperative would begin 'Have a safe and healthy ...'

Is it OK here to use "begin" only (without with)?

 

[kadioguy]

So, it should be "wishing ..." here, right? (A signpost in Taiwan)

 

[tedmc]

Is it OK here to use "begin" only (without with)?

Rover must have overlooked that.

 

[tedmc]

So, it should be "wishing ..." here, right? (A signpost in Taiwan)

Yes, using "wish" is not natural. It sounds correct in Chinese as there are no tenses.

 

[emsr2d2]

That huge sign should read "[We] Hope you have a nice day" or "Wishing you a nice day".

 

[Rover_KE]

'Wish you ...' is not an imperative—it should have 'I' or 'We' or 'The management and staff of ScoffWell Dog Chow Company'.

An imperative would begin 'Have a safe and healthy ...'

Is it OK here to use "begin" only (without with)?

Yes — it's a shorter way of saying 'An imperative would begin as follows: "Have a safe and healthy ..."'