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I would like to know the difference among the following sentences.

  1. I wish I had a car.

  2. I wish I would have a car.

  3. I wish to have a car.

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  • I wish I would have a car* is completely agrammatical in English and actually sounds uneducated. Don't try getting into a university using that....or getting a high-level job somewhere. It's marked as uneducated usage. "Hay los que saben, y los otros...."
    – Lambie
    Apr 22, 2016 at 17:38
  • @Lambie I don't know what to say I will probably just follow your advice and not use it at school or at work. I kind of see your point of view when I meditate on it, it sounds like if I'm reproaching my self for not having a car. Pero quien sabe, I might be wrong.
    – Manuel Hernandez
    Apr 22, 2016 at 20:53

2 Answers 2

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1.

In general, I wish + subject + past simple is used to express wishes about the present. Therefore,

I wish I had a car

means "I don't have a car. I want to have one."

2.

I wish I would have a car.

means that you want to have a car sometime in the future.

Modals "would" and "could" are used to express wishes about the future. That type has the structure of: I wish + subject + would/could + verb

3.

Now, honestly I haven't noticed the structure that is the same to your third example on any websites explaining the use of "I wish", that is probably because it's a more simple thing. It's just a regular sentence. Considering that the verb "to wish" is used in present simple, and "to have" is an infinitive phrase that is serving as an adverb, it basically means that you right now in the present want to have a car.

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  • i wish I had a car is the correct form. I wish I would have is a grammar mistake in English. I wish + subject + verb can take would or could. But not I wish + possession of a thing.
    – Lambie
    Apr 22, 2016 at 16:46
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    @Lambie can I say "I wish they left" instead of "I wish they would leave"?
    – Manuel Hernandez
    Apr 22, 2016 at 16:52
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    @ManuelHernandez - That's a really good point! If my cousins are here, and I want them to go away, I would say, "I wish they would leave" because we're talking about the future. "I wish they left" isn't something I would usually say, and I can't really think of a good way that I'd ever use it.
    – stangdon
    Apr 22, 2016 at 17:05
  • How did you conclude "I wish I would have" is a grammar mistake? The source I listed above(when you click on hyperlink) says it's a proper thing to use, and I see nothing logically wrong with it. (Full sentence: I wish that I would have a car. I wish is the main clause, "that I would have a car" is the relative clause. Both are grammatically correct.)
    – Random Dude
    Apr 22, 2016 at 17:07
  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.
    – J.R. ♦
    Apr 22, 2016 at 20:59
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/I wish I had a car/ is the correct form for wishing about something in the present. The verb wish should always be followed by the simple past: /I wish I spoke Chinese/ or /I wish I played golf/.

The reason for this is that you want something you do not or cannot have, the sentence is constructed like the IF hypothetical sentences: /If he were/was rich, he would be nicer./

/I wish I would have/ is incorrect in English. Always.

/I wish to have a [something] is correct but has a different meaning. It does not mean you cannot have it. It is a polite way of expressing something. For example, you might say (though it is old fashioned) to a waiter: /I wish to have the chicken dish/. Or you might say at a school when meeting with the principal: /My son wishes to learn Hindi./ In these two cases, wish means wants.

if the I wish is followed by subject + a verb as in: I wish they would leave. It's fine to use would. However, for possessing an object, it is not. I wish they would stop talking. Those are full sentences in fact (they is the subject and the verb is leave).

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  • Be careful about saying "Always" so emphatically. I think "I wish I would have" is sometimes used to mean "I wish I had." I wish I would have gone to college. I wish I would have talked to my mom more before she died. I wish I would have backed up the files on my computer before my hard drive crashed. I think that's what might be going on here. (Note my downvote, btw)
    – J.R. ♦
    Apr 22, 2016 at 20:51
  • No, J. R. I wish I had gone to college is grammatical in English. I wish I would have gone is not grammatical. That's exactly the type of thing they teach in remedial English in the first year of college for those who need it. I wish I HAD backed up my computer before my hard drive crashed. You are just repeating over and over the TYPICAL mistakes made by so many. I'm flabbergasted that people here claim to be answering questions from English learners and are themselves so clueless. Sorry to be so harsh, but really, it's astounding.
    – Lambie
    Apr 22, 2016 at 21:42
  • English is like ice cream, it comes in many flavors: formal, conversational, colloquial, prescriptive, proper, literary, idiomatic, poetic, archaic, and slang. Not every learner is interested solely in dogmatic prescriptivism, and my link points to hundreds of counterexamples found in published books. (Read my comment carefully; I never said it was "grammatical".) As a footnote, keep your comments constructive. Astounded, flabbergasted, clueless? An English enthusiast like you should be able to comprehend these two words: be nice.
    – J.R. ♦
    Apr 23, 2016 at 0:28
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    You didn't call me clueless, but you implied much of the community is. And I wouldn't call "proof of how uneducated people are" a "polite" comment. To reiterate: Belittling language is not okay, be welcoming and patient, refrain from name-calling, don't be a jerk. (Sorry to be so harsh, but those aren't my words – I'm just quoting from the SE model).
    – J.R. ♦
    Apr 23, 2016 at 11:17
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    I'd like to add some information, which I hope will be useful for the reader. But first off, I didn't downvote this question. I flagged one of the comments as nonconstructive, though. I don't think the answer is that bad, but it wasn't very good either. The first revision of this answer simply states /I wish I would have/ is incorrect in English. Always. Nothing about I wish they would leave, which was added after the two downvotes (if I remember correctly), at all.
    – Damkerng T.
    Apr 23, 2016 at 11:56

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