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Hi. Question.

I had a Japanese English teacher ask me a question today. I had a hard time giving him the reason why. Mostly because I don't know the reason.

He asked me why we can say 'I wish I could do that.' but not 'I wish I would do that.'
I told him that if you change the subject then he could use would. For example 'I wish my father would do that.'

Any help in explaining the reason/s to me would be greatly appreciated.

Michael

I reckon it's to do with certain aspects of the meaning of each modal in at least the given examples: will here is about "volition" say (or indeed 'will' in a noun sense), and most people have self-volition and don't need to wish otherwise, hence the oddity of I wish I would do that (but how about I wish I wouldn't give conflicting counter-examples quite so often (NB: I wish I could stop giving conflicting counter-examples; ??/*I wish I couldn't give conflicting counter-examples)); could on the other hand relates to (in)ability, or some sort of (im)possibility in the circumstances, which the speaker obviously has much less control over (or will need to work to change, which could take a while) than his or her relatively simple and straightforward own volition.

I think you could say something like "I wish I would stop smoking." especially if you find you are addicted and it's too difficult to quit. Or even "I wish I would go to the grocery store." because you are just too lazy and won't leave the house. However, it is definitely rare.

Hello, Fluffy you have the correct response, in my opinion.

CAN and WILL do not mean the same thing, as they are a root in the use of COULD and WOULD the words are not interchangeable.

Rp

Thanks for your replies. I think I got it sorted out in my head.

Again, thanks.