Is it correct to say 'I wish some magic happens'? [closed]

Solution 1:

No, you cannot have a present-tense verb following I wish that X.

That’s because you always have to backshift that next verb in X to make it unreal or hypothetical. After all, it’s a wish; it isn’t real. Therefore using the present tense won’t work there. (By the way, wish is pretty much the last verb in English that still works this way. Even hope can take a non-backshifted present tense.)

Here though are valid and commonly used forms that are available to you for wish:

Present Tense: I wish that...

1. I wish she called first, but she doesn’t.
2. I wish she would call first, but she doesn’t.
3. I wish she would call first, but she hasn’t.
4. I wish she had called first, but she didn’t.
5. I wish she would have called first, but she didn’t.

Past Tense: I wished that...

6. I wished she had called first, but she didn’t.
7. I had wished she would have called first, but she hadn’t.

The most important thing is the last word in each version, the ones matching X in the parenthetical afterthought, “but she Xn’t”. I don’t mean to say that we actually say that last part, but we always have its status in mind so that we know exactly what to choose for the two earlier clauses’ verb forms to convey the meaning given by the parenthetical.

Examples (1) and (2) with doesn’t are both talking about something habitual. It’s like she never does call first even though you wish she would do so. Maybe you’ve even asked her to do so, but it does no good to ask.

In example (3) with hasn’t, you’re still hoping she might call first. The event you’re wishing would happen still lies in the future, its outcome still unknown.

In examples (4) and (5) with didn’t, there is no chance of your wish coming true because it’s too late: the possibility lay in the past and she already did not call first. It can never come to pass.

In example (6) with wished and didn’t, the wishing itself is now in the past, but the outcome is the same: it did not happen. It’s too late for it to yet occur, just as in (4) and (5). Only when the wishing is taking place has moved into the past from the present.

The final example (7) with had wished and hadn’t, is far less common than the others because it’s using a more complex construction, the past perfect, which we often don’t bother with in English. Usually a simple past suffices. But the place you would be more apt to use this one is when you were narrating something in the past and needed to set up a condition that was even further back than the time you were narrating.

But what about “the subjunctive”?

It was easier to explain how to use wish along with the simple verb call. But with be you do have another choice, and people who are fussy about using were for hypotheticals instead of was when backshifting into the unreal will also elect to use that special form here as well.

8. I always wish she were here now, but she never is.
9. I wish she were here now, but she isn’t.
10. I wish she had been here now, but she isn’t.
11. I wish she had been there then, but she wasn’t.
12. I wished she had been there then, but she wasn’t.
13. I had wished she had been there then, but she wasn’t.

Just as you cannot use present-tense calls after I wish, you also cannot use the present-tense can be or is able to be following it, either; You always have to backshift.

Here’s a backshifted can be, where present-tense can becomes past-tense could:

14. I always wish she could be here now, but she never can (be).
15. I wish she could be here now, but she can’t.
16. I wish she could have been here now, but she can’t.
17. I wish she could have been there then, but she couldn’t.
18. I wished she could have been there then, but she couldn’t.
19. I had wished she could have been there then, but she couldn’t.

And here’s how you would do that same thing with the periphrastic version where we reword can + ɪɴꜰɪɴɪᴛɪᴠᴇ into an inflected form of be able to + ɪɴꜰɪɴɪᴛɪᴠᴇ, with allows the form of be chosen to now carry person, number, and inflectional tense or mood:

20. I always wish she were able to be here now, but she never is.
21. I wish she were able to be here now, but she isn’t.
22. I wish she were able to have been here now, but she isn’t.
23. I wish she were able to have been there then, but she wasn’t.
24. I wished she were able to have been there then, but she wasn’t.
25. I had wished she had been able to have been there then, but she wasn’t.

In some ways, it’s easier to use that last set than the set immediately previous to it.