‘Wish’ clauses can be very complicated, but there are practical uses for wish sentences which you may not know about.
Using wish as a more formal word for ‘want’
Whether you are writing a formal email, or whether you are speaking formally to clients, using the phrase ‘wish to’ can make you sound more professional than ‘want to’.
Here are some really useful examples where you can use ‘wish to’:
‘We wish to inform you that..’
‘We wish to speak to the manager’
Another good construction here is ‘Should you wish to…’. This is a more formal version of ‘If you want to…’:
‘Should you wish to make a complaint, please contact us at…’ – Formal
‘If you want to make a complaint, please contact us at…’ – Informal
As you can see in this more formal sentence with ‘should you wish to…’ Should has replaced if. ‘Should’ can be used instead of ‘if’ in more formal sentences when you are talking about the present and future. This can make you sound very professional when used correctly. To read more on this, check out my post from last Monday. Here are some more examples of formal sentences with ‘Should ‘:
‘Should you wish to return your item of clothing, please bring it back to the store with your receipt within 28 days’
‘Should you wish to leave the course at any time, please give 2 weeks notice…’
I wish you had..
Using the phrase ‘I wish you had..’ is a really good way to show that you are quite angry with someone without being rude to them. This means that it is great in business when you are speaking to clients
This can work very well with clients, where you
‘I wish you had informed me earlier about this…’
You can add a second part to these sentences:
‘I wish you had informed me earlier about this, I could have solved the problem a lot quicker’
Check out some more uses of ‘wish’ sentences right here!
If you would like to have any of these words explained further, or if you would like to see some more examples, feel free to email me at [email protected], or message me on Skype at live:fluencyspace! Also if you have any other questions about English I’m happy to answer your emails or I will write a post about it, keep the emails coming! Check out more useful grammar right here!
David Cox
Fluency Space
Make the world your fluency space. Business English for career and life success
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