OCTOBER 14, 2008 | I wish I were there/I wish I would be there
Q: I'm writing an email to a girl and I want to tell her that I want to be there with her - which sentence is more correct - "I wish I were there" or "I wish I would be there"?
A: "I wish I were there" would be better. This sentence is in the PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE form. You can also use the sentence "I wish I could be there", meaning you would like to be there but you can't.
The "would" form in the subjunctive is used to talk about things that you wish WOULD happen in the future. In English it sounds natural to say "I wish he would come tomorrow", "I wish she would stop crying", "I wish it would rain" - all of these refer to something you wish would happen at some point in the future. HOWEVER, it sounds a little strange and unnatural to use the same construction when talking about yourself! "I wish I would..." just sounds wrong. In English, the closest "natural sounding" way of wishing something for YOURSELF is by using "I wish I could..." (like in the example we gave above).
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