Collins Cobuild

Unit 68
I wish, if only, …as if…
Main points
You use ‘I wish’ and ‘If only’ to talk about wishes and regrets.
You use ‘…as if…’ and ‘…as though…’ to show that information in
a manner clause is not or might not be true.
1
You can express what you want to happen now by using ‘I wish’ or ‘If
only’ followed by a past simple verb.
I wish he wasn’t here.
If only she had a car.
Note that in formal English, you sometimes use ‘were’ instead of ‘was’
in sentences like these.
I often wish that I were really wealthy.
When you want to express regret about past events, you use the past
perfect.
I wish I hadn’t married him.
When  you  want  to  say  that  you  wish  that  someone  was  able  to  do
something, you use ‘could’.
If only they could come with us!

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When you want to say that you wish that someone was willing to do
something, you use ‘would’.
If only they would realise how stupid they’ve been.
2
When you want to indicate that the information in a manner clause
might  not  be  true,  or  is  definitely  not  true,  you  use  ‘as  if’  or  ‘as
though’.
She reacted as if she didn’t know about the race.
She acts as though she owns the place.
After ‘as if’ or ‘as though’, you often use a past tense even when you
are talking about the present, to emphasize that the information in the
manner clause is not true. In formal English, you use ‘were’ instead of
‘was’.
Presidents can’t dispose of companies as if people didn’t exist.
She treats him as though he was her own son.
He looked at me as though I were mad.
3
 You  can  also  use  ‘as  if’  or  ‘as  though’  to  say  how  someone  or
something feels, looks, or sounds.
She felt as if she had a fever.
He looked as if he hadn’t slept very much.
Mary sounded as though she had just run all the way.
You can also use ‘it looks’ and ‘it sounds’ with ‘as if’ and ‘as though’.
It looks to me as if he wrote down some notes.
It sounds to me as though he’s just being awkward.
4
When the subject of the manner clause and the main clause are the
same, you can often use a participle in the manner clause and omit the
subject and the verb ‘be’.

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He ran off to the house as if escaping.
He shook his head as though dazzled by his own vision.
You can also use ‘as if’ or ‘as though’ with a ‘to’-infinitive clause.
As if to remind him, the church clock struck eleven.
5
In informal speech, people often use ‘like’ instead of ‘as if’ or ‘as’ to say
how a person feels, looks, or sounds. Some speakers of English think
that this use of ‘like’ is incorrect.
He felt like he’d won the pools.
You look like you’ve seen a ghost.
You talk just like my father does.
You can also use ‘like’ in prepositional phrases to say how someone
does something.
He was sleeping like a baby.
I behaved like an idiot, and I’m sorry.

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