I wish I had three wishes...

Hi, I’m Finn with another BBC English Class. Now I’m sure you know the story of Aladdin. The man who found a magic lamp, a bit like this. out came a genie. and he made three wishes: three things he wanted to happen that were very unlikely or impossible otherwise.

I have three wishes for you today as well. Unfortunately I’m not a genie. I’m going to give you three ways to use the verb wish . OK, it’s not quite as good as Aladdin, but hopefully it will be useful for you. So let’s do it, as usual, in 90 seconds.

Right. OK, so number one. Wish. you can use it wish something unlikely or impossible to be true. OK, let me give you an example:

I wish my eyesight was better.

Or:

I wish I hadn’t told her.

OK, so: I wish my eyesight was better , that’s something that’s very unlikely. I wish I hadn’t told her - that’s something that’s impossible to change. It’s already happened. So, we use it with past tenses as well.

Notice that I wish I hadn’t told her , and I wish my eyesight was better. OK, so there’s another video on that in our Stop Saying series so take a look out for that.

Next, wish number two. We have: to wish for something. Now, when you wish for something, you really think very hard about something you want to happen.

So, I could wish for a happy, peaceful life.

Or we could say: she wished for a better job. Maybe she doesn’t like her job - she wished for a better job.

OK, now, last wish. You can wish someone something. Right, so: I wished him. Oh, that’s my time. I wish I had more time. There it is. My time’s run out, but let me just finish my last point.

I wished him a safe trip. so you wish someone something. Or.

I wished him a safe trip , he wished me luck.

Or, I wish you a happy anniversary.

And there we are. I’m out of time already. I wish you all the best with your English learning. That’s it from me. I’m no genie, but hopefully with these videos your English will improve. Bye.