Unreal past,wishes /contrast

Suppose,what if and imagine can also be

Suppose,what if and imagine can also be

followed by a present tense.

A present tense indicates that the situation

is more likely to actually happen.

A past tense indicateds that the

situation is less likely to actual happen.

• What if you are accepted into art collage? (more likely to happen)
• What if you were accepted into art collage ? (less likely to happen)

Warch out!!!!

Wishes

• "I wish" in the conditionals
• The verb wish has a direct meaning (like in "we wish you a Merry Christmas") and it is also used in the conditional sentences. We say "I wish" + a condition when we regret something. We can speak about either the present / the future, or the past. I wish I had a million dollars.
• The English word “wish” is used when the speaker wants reality to be different than it actually is. Wish is followed by a noun clause using past tense verb forms. The following pairs of examples express “true” statements about the past, present, and future, and how you would express a desire for the opposite (the wish) to be true.
•  A wish about the past:
• Ellen couldn’t come to the convention.
• I wish Ellen could have come to the convention.

We use different structures with wish/if only, depending on exactly what we want to express

Use	Structure	Example
Expressing wishes about the present, future or generally	Wish/if only +past simple/continuous	I wishi was studying history of fashion instead of biology!
Expressing wishes about the past	Wish/if only+past perfect/ simple/ continuous	If only I’d known Bruton`s was having a sale last week!
Criticasing other people or complaining about a situation now,in the future or generally	Wish/if only+would	If only Henry would get a haircut!
Expressing hypotical ability or permission now,in the future or generally	Wish/if only+could	I wish I could fit into these jeans
Expressing desires in a formal way	Wish+full infinitive	I wish to try on this ball gown