Mkyol  +  958503 Sun, 01 Nov 09 01:25 AM Hello, I'm confused about the sentence "I wish you had never been born." I don't quite get why the "had" is used.. is that making the sentence have past perfect tense? Or does it have something to do with conditionals? Couldn't you just say "I wish you were never born"?How are the two sentences different in meaning? Thanks.     Mkyol Joined on Tue, Dec 18 2007 South Korea Full Member 155 Tenses, Past Perfect, Past Tenses, Conditionals, Sentences

	Yankee  +  958530 Sun, 01 Nov 09 02:08 AM Hi Mkyol After "I wish", you use the past perfect form of the verb to refer to the unreal past -- like what you find in a type 3 conditional sentence. - I wish I had studied harder for my exam. = I did not study very hard for my exam. (If I had studied harder for my exam, I would have passed.) ------------------------------------------------- After "I wish", we use the past form of the verb to refer to an unreal or hypothetical present -- similar to a type 2 conditional sentence. For example: - I wish I had a car. = I do not have a car. (It would be wonderful if I had a car.) Yankee Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006 Connecticut, USA Veteran Member 6,502 Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain