I wish I would get better

No. I thought we have already covered the difference between "hope" and "wish".

Possibly

I have a fever. I hope I will get better by tomorrow.

or perhaps

I have a fever. I hope I will feel better tomorrow.

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Or

"I hope I will be better tomorrow"

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Hi Contrex

I'm aware I've asked you about 'hope' and 'wish'.

The question I'm posing now is in regard to a hypothetical situation.

I wish I would be better tomorrow.

I wish he would go away.

Are the above sentences correct? Can 'wish' be used in the first sentence or should it be 'hope'? I believe the second sentence is correct.

Many thanks.

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Yoong Liat wrote:

I wish I would be better tomorrow.

I wish he would go away.

Are the above sentences correct? Can 'wish' be used in the first sentence or should it be 'hope'? I believe the second sentence is correct.

Many thanks.

No, the first sentence should be

I hope I'm better tomorrow
I hope to be better tomorrow
I hope to be better by tomorrow

(or, note: I wish I could be better by tomorrow, but it's too soon)

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Hi Mc Tag

Many thanks for correcting me.

Could you please phrase a sentence using 'wish', 'would' and 'I' so that I can have a clear picture about the usage?

Thank you very much.

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Here's the thing, yoong. Everybody uses the language differently. What one person tells you is correct/incorrect is not necessarily what someone else would tell you is correct/incorrect. And both of those different contradictory answers would still fit within the parameters of the language as it is spoken by fluent, literate speakers. I'd disagree with some of the answers above. You could say "I have a fever. I wish I would be better" or more likely "I have a fever. I wish I would get better", which have sort of the implication that the fever has been hanging on for awhile and you just want it to go away. "I wish I would be better tomorrow" does sound a little strange,the "tomorrow" makes it a little more concrete and time-bound than "wish" might normally imply, but I think it's still within bounds. "I hope I'm better tomorrow" sounds more natural.

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Thank you very much. Username, for the lucid reply.

Best wishes.

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Try:

I have a fever. I hope I will be better by tomorrow.

Are we doing your homework for you?

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Sglass wrote:

Try:

I have a fever. I hope I will be better by tomorrow.

Are we doing your homework for you?

You're not doing homework for me because I'm not a student. Your answer falls short of what has been provided by Username.

His reply is very detailed and logical. He is very much like Contrex, who has guided me most often and has most of the time given me detailed and analytical replies. And Contrex has never said he is doing my homework.

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Re: I wish I would get better

Yoong Liat wrote:

I wish I would get better.

So do I.

Try licking it.

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Yoong Liat wrote:

Hi Mc Tag

Many thanks for correcting me.

Could you please phrase a sentence using 'wish', 'would' and 'I' so that I can have a clear picture about the usage?

Thank you very much.

You CAN say "I wish I would get better", it's not incorrect, but it sounds more American than UK-English to me.

You will get different preferences from American and British correspondents, especially in these simple colloquial phrases.

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McTag wrote:

You will get different preferences from American and British correspondents, especially in these simple colloquial phrases.

I think that's the long and short of it, McTag, to use a simple colloquial phrase.

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You learned yours in the UK, though?

I did enjoy the book "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson, who writes amusingly and interestingly about these differences.

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McTag wrote:

Yoong Liat wrote:
Hi Mc Tag

Many thanks for correcting me.

Could you please phrase a sentence using 'wish', 'would' and 'I' so that I can have a clear picture about the usage?

Thank you very much.

You CAN say "I wish I would get better", it's not incorrect, but it sounds more American than UK-English to me.

You will get different preferences from American and British correspondents, especially in these simple colloquial phrases.

But "would" is usually conditional, I think, and so you expect it to be followed by an "if" clause. Unless you're American, of course. :wink:

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McTag wrote:

You learned yours in the UK, though?

I learned it from being British, from being born in Kings College Hospital, in Camberwell, London SE5, in 1952, and from living in Herne Hill, East Dulwich, Swindon and Bristol in the UK from then until 2002. Various schools, colleges and a unversity along the way.

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Well you told me didn't you YL. Laughing

I can recomend a slim volume I keep on my desk (or is it at my desk), by E.B. White called (or is it refered to as) "The Elements of Style". It is a handbook of grammatical and stylistic dos and don'ts for writers of "American English". Mr. White won a special Pulitzer prize for his work.

Oh dear, I hope none of my participles were hanging.

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Yoong Liat wrote:

Hi Contrex

I'm aware I've asked you about 'hope' and 'wish'.

The question I'm posing now is in regard to a hypothetical situation.

I wish I would be better tomorrow.

I wish he would go away.

Are the above sentences correct? Can 'wish' be used in the first sentence or should it be 'hope'? I believe the second sentence is correct.

Many thanks.

I don't believe it's a matter of correct versus incorrect. There's something just not semantically right with

"I wish I would be better tomorrow", Yoong Liat.

Of course,

"I wish he would go away"

is fine. You feel he won't go away so you've expressed what is in your mind, a clear counterfactual, the area that 'wish' covers.

Now, why does

"I wish I would be better tomorrow"

not sound quite natural? Is it "be better" that makes it odd. Is it that "be better" is a gradient, something that is too close to possible for it to be described by what we see as something that should be an impossibility or close to it.

Is it just too far away from a non-factual that it simply and logically falls within the realm of 'hope'? It even sounds odd to me for the second and third person.

? I wish he/she/they would be better tomorrow. ?

"I wish I would get better"

doesn't even sound quite right to me.

Is it that "I" should know the likelihood of my getting better and so it isn't a true wish?

"I wish I would get better"

in a context spoken by someone who knows and realizes that they won't be getting better sounds okay. Even

"I wish I would get better tomorrow"

in that same counterfactual context would work.

More thought required.

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Hi JTT

I wish I would get better tomorrow.

I'm quite confused by your reasoning. Excuse me as I'm a non-native speaker?

Many thanks.

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Hi JTT

Are you saying that "I wish I would get better tomorrow" is ok.

Being a non-native speaker, I can't follow your reasoning. Excuse me for that.

Many thanks.

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I wish I would get better

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