I wish this day would have never come.
Shouldn't 'had' be simply used in place 'would have' here, since, 'would have' is used in reference to the past, and furthermore, when talking about a wish, past perfect tense is used ?
7
-
"had never come" would be the obvious tense, but what is the context? What is the source?– James KCommented Sep 17, 2022 at 15:00
-
My guess it is Nadal's (an able but non-native speaker of English) Twitter post (a casual form of writing) about the retirement of Federer. It was described in the English press as "emotional" (suggesting that grammatical accuracy isn't so important here).– James KCommented Sep 17, 2022 at 15:02
-
Yes, it's syntactically valid. But many people won't like it much - especially Brits, who very rarely use non-contracted would in contexts like If I would have known you were coming, I'd have baked a cake. Also note that Brits in particular are likely to "unpack" that 'd as had, so they're much more likely to say If I had have lost you, I don't know what I'd do (where most Americans don't mind If I would have lost you...).– FumbleFingersCommented Sep 17, 2022 at 15:24
-
Here are a couple of dozen written instances of [I] wish it would never have [happened]. But I doubt any of them will be from British authors (we'd always opt for contracted I wish it'd never happened to avoid would).– FumbleFingersCommented Sep 17, 2022 at 15:33
-
@FumbleFingers: "If I had have lost you" ??? Don't you mean "If I had lost you"?– Colin FineCommented Sep 17, 2022 at 17:42
|
Show 2 more comments
1 Answer
Both are perfectly valid:
I wish this day would have never come.
I wish this day had never come.
There is a subtle difference between the two. The first implies that there was a chance it might not have come, while the second example doesn't really suggest that.
According to the comments, the second example is preferred (unless you want to suggest that this day might not have ever come).
-
Not sure about all my compatriots, but (as a Brit?) I don't really have a problem with I wish it'd never have come to this. It's specifically uncontracted "would" that most Brits avoid. Commented Sep 17, 2022 at 15:40
-
That American 'would have' really grinds many peoples' gears, including a lot of Americans. Commented Sep 17, 2022 at 15:50