| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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3. Word Choice: New Uses, Common Confusion, and Constraints
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| § 305. wish |
| We normally use wish as a polite substitute for want with infinitives: Do you wish to sit at a table on the terrace? Anyone who wishes to may leave now. This usage is appropriate for formal style, where it is natural to treat the desires of others with exaggerated deference. Less frequently, we use wish with a noun phrase as its object, as in Anyone who wishes an aisle seat should see an attendant. Both usages may sound stilted in informal style, however, and you may want to use want instead. | 1 |
| wish and was / were. Is it wrong to say I wish I was rich instead of I wish I were rich? For an answer to this question, see
subjunctive under Grammar. | 2 |
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| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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