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I wish + would arrive or arrived?

I wish + would arrive or arrived?

AlexisShounen14
So, my gut feeling says it should say: I wish it ARRIVED on time, but am I wrong? Is it really WOULD ARRIVE? Another example: I wish the government WOULD LOWER taxes, or... LOWERED taxes. Thanks in advance for your help

12 comments

Economy_Attempt58
As a native speaker, both make sense to me. I feel like I could use them interchangeably. For the purpose of the lesson though, would arrive fits what it is asking you to do.
AlexisShounen14OP
Number 5 is the problem btw, the rest is ok 🙏
Drgs38
I think "arrived" would be used more often in speaking, but the correct form is "would arrive". No one will blame you for saying "arrived", but it's not entirely correct from a grammatical point of view. Not sure tho this is just my opinion. Edit: So i looked it up and you're supposed to use "would/could arrive" when expressing wishes for the future and use "arrived" when expressing wishes for the present. In this case, you wish the bus would arrive earlier, for future cases when you might want to take it, as opposed to wishing it arrived earlier right now, because you don't want to be waiting for it for a long time. I hope you understand!
CollectiveCephalopod
Are you talking about a past event you wish had gone differently, or a future event you hope would go better? "I wish it had arrived on time." - The bus didn't arrive when they expected it to and they're not happy with the outcome. "I wish it would arrive on time." - The speaker is hoping that the bus will be on time, but previous experience leads them to believe it won't. For this question, I would assume the desired answer is 'would arrive' since the first sentence describes the bus always being late and the the question is about usage of 'would' rather than usage of 'had'.
DameWhen
"Would" is an imaginative word. We use it for ideas and wishes.
hazy_Lime
I wish I were a bird
Select_Credit6108
I know it's technically correct, but #2 really stands out to me as somewhat unnatural. I can definitely see "it wouldn't be cold tomorrow" working in a sentence like "They said it wouldn't be cold tomorrow." But in the context of "I wish..." I think it should definitely be "weren't" instead of wouldn't be.
Agreeable-Fee6850
It’s a bit of a mixed set of examples, but the sentences are illustrating a pattern - using ‘would’ instead of ‘will’ in hypothetical situations. In 1, 3, 4 and 5 - the sentences are about repeated actions. They use present simple in the examples, but native speakers could use ‘will + infinitive” in these sentences to express annoyance- “The neighbours will make so much noise!” “He won’t listen to me!” In 2 the sentence is just about hypothetical future - going to changes to would. These sentences express that the speaker / writer wishes something was different or could be different in the future.
Money_Canary_1086
Arrive/Arrived is based on the tense. Since we are discussing an ongoing situation, you don’t want to use past tense.
brokebackzac
"Would arrived" is not correct in any sense, nor is it common usage as a mistake. "Would have arrived" would be correct, but "would arrive" is the only correct option.
GrandAdvantage7631
What about "did arrive"?
AwfulUsername123
"Arrived" and "would arrive" are both acceptable in this sentence. If it were referring to a singular action, then only "would arrive" could be used.