I wish

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Phrase

I wish

1. (idiomatic, colloquial) Used to express the speaker's wish that the preceding statement were true

   - I don't know how I'm going to afford all these Christmas presents.
   - Maybe you'll win the lottery and become a millionaire overnight.
   - I wish!

Usage notes

• The verb wish requires an object or prepositional phrase. In conversation, a preceding statement is the understood missing constituent of the complete expression.

Synonyms

• from your lips to God's ears

Related terms

• you wish

Translations

I would very much like that to be so

• Arabic: لَيْتَ (ar) (layta), تَمَنَّى (tamannā) (a sentence in subjunctive mood follows)
• Catalan: tant de bo (ca), si (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 但願／但愿 (zh) (dànyuàn)

• Dutch: was het maar zo dat, or use auxiliary hebben (nl) with inversion and maar (nl) (Had ik maar veel geld. – If only I had lots of money!)
• Finnish: totta kai (fi), ilman muuta (fi)
• French: si seulement (fr), j’aurais aimé que (a sentence in subjunctive mood follows)
• German: wenn auch, wenn doch nur
• Hebrew: הַלְוַאי (halevái), כֵּן יְהִי רָצוֹן (ken yehí ratzón)
• Italian: magari (it), mi piacerebbe
• Japanese: (conditional sentence + ii noni (nā)) -ばいいのになあ (-ba ii noni nā), -らいいのになあ (-ra ii noni nā), -ならいいのになあ (-nara ii noni nā), -よいものを (yoi mono o)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: xwezî (ku)

• Malay: sekira, semoga
• Norwegian: skulle ønske det, skulle ønske jeg var
• Persian: کاش (fa) (kâš), کاشکی (fa) (kâški) (informal), ای کاش (ey kâš) (formal)
• Polish: jeśli by, jeśliby, o ile (pl), gdyby tylko
• Portuguese: oxalá (pt), quem me dera
• Russian: хоте́лось бы (xotélosʹ by), е́сли бы то́лько (jésli by tólʹko), е́сли бы (ru) (jésli by)
• Slovene: če bi le
• Spanish: ojalá (es), si (es), si tan solo, si tan siquiera
• Turkish: keşke (tr)
• Ukrainian: я́кби (uk) (jákby)

Anagrams

• Hiwis