When you use the PAST TENSE to talk about THE FUTURE | Unreal past [Weird English]

Summary

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Q & A

Quel est le type de soupe dont parle le personnage dans le script ?

Le personnage parle de la soupe mulligatawny.

Pourquoi le personnage ne veut-il pas de la mulligatawny ?

Il souhaite avoir de la minestrone à la place, mais il semble qu'il n'y en ait pas dans le restaurant.

Quel est l'erreur grammaticale que le personnage commet lorsqu'il exprime son souhait ?

Il utilise 'I wish I would have' au lieu de 'I wish I had' pour parler d'un souhait présent.

Quelle est la différence entre 'WISH' et 'HOPE' dans le contexte du script ?

'WISH' est utilisé pour parler de souhaits qui sont impossibles ou hors de contrôle, tandis que 'HOPE' est utilisé pour des situations qui sont plus proches de la réalité et possibles.

Quelle est la structure grammaticale correcte pour exprimer un souhait avec 'WISH' ?

On utilise 'WISH' suivi du passé simple pour exprimer un souhait présent qui est impossible ou hors de contrôle.

Quel est l'usage du conditionnel passé avec 'WISH' ?

Le conditionnel passé avec 'WISH' est utilisé pour exprimer des situations hypothétiques ou des regrets du passé, comme 'I wish I hadn't done that'.

Quels sont les autres contextes où l'on utilise le passé irréel ou le conditionnel passé ?

On l'utilise après 'IF ONLY', 'IT'S TIME', 'SUPPOSE', 'WHAT IF' et 'WOULD RATHER' pour parler de situations hypothétiques ou pour exprimer des préférences.

Quel est l'usage de 'WERE' après 'WISH' pour le verbe 'to be' ?

On utilise 'WERE' pour toutes les personnes après 'WISH' pour exprimer un souhait, même si on peut informellement utiliser 'was'.

Quelle est la différence entre 'COULD' et 'CAN' dans le contexte de 'WISH' ?

'COULD' est le passé irréel de 'CAN' et est utilisé après 'WISH' pour exprimer un souhait ou un regret, tandis que 'CAN' est utilisé pour exprimer la capacité à faire quelque chose.

Quel est le message final du script ?

Le message final est une invitation aux téléspectateurs à partager des points de grammaire qu'ils aimeraient voir couverts dans une future vidéo et à visiter la boutique en ligne pour acheter des t-shirts.

Outlines

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Transcripts

What soup is this?

it's mulligatawny

I don't want mulligatawny

Then why did you order it?

I wish I would have minestrone.  Do they have minestrone? 

Minestrone you idiot. They didn't have minestrone.  I've got cream of mushroom do you want that? 

Okay Here you are. By the way  

in English you don't say ‘I wish I would  have’ it's ‘I wish I had minestrone.’ 

Are you correcting my grammar again? 

Yes that's what I do.

Go on then.

If you talk about a present  wish you use a past tense. 

You use a past tense to talk about a present wish?

Yes in English you use a past tense in two ways;

one, to talk about past and two, to talk  about remote situations that don't feel  

real either because they are extremely unlikely  or they are impossible or out of your control  

such as conditionals. ‘if I had time I would  come tomorrow’. You're using a past tense  

but it's not a past time, it's called an unreal  past. A past tense is not the same as past time . 

With WISH use a past tense but it's not past  time.

Interesting so how do you use it with WISH?

You use WISH + past tense to talk about present  wishes that are impossible or out of your control  

for example ‘I wish I lived somewhere else.’  ‘I wish I didn't have to see your stupid face  

every day.’ if you're using CAN it becomes COULD.  COULD is the irregular past of CAN. ‘I wish  

I could see around corners.’ WOULD is the  irregular past of WILLl use ‘I wish you would’ for  

an imperative use of WISH when you want someone to  change their behaviour. instead of saying ‘hurry  

up’ say ‘I wish you would hurry up’ because I know  you can hurry up but that you're not doing it.  

If it's the verb to be then use WERE for  all persons. I wish I were. I wish she were  

etc but in formal English you'll hear if I was if.  she was okay ‘if I were you i'd get a haircut.’  

‘He wishes he were a woman’ or ‘he  wishes he was a woman’ informally

You know this mulligatawny is  really delicious you should try it. 

No I don't want to.

I wish you would, they make the best mulligatawny in Paris. Even in London  you can't find mulligatawny soup as good as this  

and I should know I've had a lot  of mulligatawny soup in my life. 

I wish you'd shut up about the mulligatawny soup

Okay so give me some examples with WISH

I wish I had a spoon instead of a fork for  the soup Gideon. I wish I were in Uruguay. 

Uruguay why Uruguay?

Uru-why not. No my my girlfriend lives in Uruguay.

Oh I see you're-a-guy and  she's a woman, what's her name? 

Ella if you must know. Is she nice? 

She's an helluva girl. I wish I could meet her. 

I wish I could have coffee with her now,  I wish I could speak with her tonight. 

Hold on, hold on no you don't say it like that.  The first sentence is correct ‘I wish I could have  

coffee with her now’ because you're in Paris  and she's in Montevideo so it's impossible  

but not the second sentence. ‘I  wish I could speak to her tonight’. 

Are you going to speak to her tonight?

If she's at home yes.

If the situation is possible you use  HOPE not WISH in this case it is possible  

so you say ‘I hope I can see her tonight.’ ‘I hope  to visit her soon.’ HOPE is usually followed by a  

present tense or an infinitive. It's much closer  to reality so we don't need the unreal past and  

its implied factual remoteness. I see so I hope the pizzas arrive  

soon or I hope I'm not allergic to panda  bears because it's probable that I'm not. 

Exactly what about the past of wish?  For example ‘I wish I didn't order  

mulligatawny soup’ is that correct?

No that's not correct. For the past it's confusing but if you use a past tense you’re talking about  the present remember? you can't use the past  

simple tense to talk about the past  that real estate is already taken  

so to talk about regrets in the past you would  use a past perfect. Just put HAD or HADN’T plus  

the past participle for example. I wish I  hadn't ‘I wish I hadn't eaten 12 doughnuts.’  

‘I wish I hadn't insulted my pilates instructor  because now she's really angry with me.’ 

Ah, I wish I hadn't ordered mulligatawny.  I wish I had called Ella last night. 

You got it

Are there any other cases when you use this unreal past?

Yes after IF ONLY which has a similar meaning to WISH. ‘If only I had more time.’  ‘if only I could change my job.’ 

Ok anything else?

Yes after IT’S TIME you can put an infinitive

‘it's time to leave’ but if you put a pronoun  or a name after IT’S TIME the verb will be  

in the past tense this also makes it sound more  urgent ‘it's time you lost some weight’, ‘it's  

time you did some exercise you you lazy bastard.’

It's time you shut up. it's time

my boss gave me a pay rise bloody  tight-fisted bastard. Anything else? 

A few other cases after SUPPOSE and WHAT  IF to talk about hypothetical situations.  

‘Suppose we went to Crete this summer? and  what if we took a boat around the harbour?  

You use unreal past after WOULD RATHER when it's  followed by a pronoun or a name WOULD RATHER has  

a similar meaning to prefer for example ‘shall we  go today?’ - ‘No, I'd rather we went tomorrow.’

i'd rather you didn't look at me like that. 

Like what? Like that it's scary.

HAD BETTER uses unreal past too. it's always  HAD BETTER never HAVE BETTER to talk about  

obligation with consequences. ‘Your pants are on  fire you'd better jump into the swimming pool.’ 

HAD BETTER is interesting  don't we have a video about it? 

Good question, yes we do, we do  indeed. Check it out up here. 

Excellent. I have to catch my flight  to Montevideo now so I had better go. 

I wish you would, yes I wish you would.

Greetings grammarians, I hope you enjoyed that video and if there are any grammar points  that you want me to cover in a future video  

then do let me know in the comments and if  you want to purchase a grammarian t-shirt  

then you can do so on the LetThemTalkTV  merch store stay healthy bye