Como falo em inglês: Queria que ela morasse perto

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Nov 05
Como falo em inglês Queria que ela morasse perto

Hi, everyone. No episódio de hoje, você vai me ouvir falando sobre as estruturas if only I wish, usadas para lamentar que alguma coisa não seja do jeito que você queria, ou desejar que aquilo fosse diferente do que na realidade é. Você vê alguém passeando com cachorro e pensa “Ah, se eu tivesse um cão…” Qual é a realidade? Você não tem um cão.

A estrutura básica é assim, sempre com a segunda parte usando um verbo na forma do passado simples:

I wish OR If only       I had / he ate / they were / we believed / etc.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. Here’s a new episode of the Inglesonline podcast. Please subscribe to this podcast using the Podcasts app for iPhone or iPad, or listen to the episodes using the Inglesonline Android app. Thanks for all the comments at the iTunes store and if you haven’t yet left a comment for this podcast please do so: the more comments for the Inglesonline podcast, the more people will find out about it and listen to the episodes. Thanks for telling your friends, your neighbors, your family and keep listening!

Alright – so today let’s take a look at “I wish” and “If only”, two phrases used to express some kind of regret. Well, “I wish” in particular can be used for different reasons, but today we’re focusing on regrets about the present. Yes, today we’re regretting; we’re lamenting the way things are. This is a very whiny episode. We’re focusing on regrets about the present state of things. We have had an episode for regrets about the past with ‘if only’ and ‘I wish’ – check it out later if you haven’t yet done so.

So here’s an example: my best friend lives far away from me, and I wish she lived in my neighbourhood. Again: my best friend lives far away from me. That’s the present; that’s what is right now. The current situation. My best friend lives far away from me. It takes me an hour to get to her place. So, here’s what I wish: I wish she lived in my neighbourhood. I wish she LIVED in my neighbourhood. Notice that I’m using the past form of the verb LIVE. How do we say that in Portuguese? We say Eu queria que ela morasse no meu bairro. That is a Subjunctive verb tense – in Portuguese we call it “Pretérito Imperfeito do Subjuntivo” and we have a whole new set of verb forms for this tense in our language. In English we simply use the past form for everyone: I wish I lived, I wish you lived, I wish he lived, I wish we lived and so on.

So let’s say you go to a furniture shop because you want to buy a new desk for your bedroom. You get there and you see all the available desks and it turns out you don’t like any of them… Actually, you kinda like a few of them but you don’t like their colors. You want a yellow desk and none of the desks you’ve seen are yellow! One of the desks for sale at the shop is just the right size, it’s got three drawers, it’s perfect. However, it’s not yellow. So what do you say? I wish they had it in yellow. If only they had it in yellow. If only they had this desk in yellow… I would definitely buy it.

So what’s the difference between “I wish” and “If only”? Basically, none… You could go with either one of them and get the same message across: there is something happening right now, or there’s a certain reality in front of you and you would like it to be different. “If only I had more money”, you say, as you see an advert for a five-bedroom apartment. “I wish I had a dog”, you think, as you go for a stroll and see people walking their dogs. “If only I knew how to cook”, you think, as you flip through the pages of a new cookbook at the bookshop.

Sometimes I wish there were more hours in a day, not just twenty four. I wish I had more free time. If only I knew how to play chess…!

What are your wishes? Let me know in the comments, and talk to you next time.

 

Keywords

  • If only I had
  • I wish she lived

 

Glossary

regret = arrependimento

whiny = reclamão, que fica choramingando (reclamando) como uma criança

an advert = um anúncio

a stroll = uma andada

 

Áudio do presidente Barack Obama vem deste vídeo.

Ana
Amanda Vieira 17/12/2014

Hello Ana,

There is a sentence where you say : ‘Actually, you kinda like a few…’, but I don’t know what that means, I’ve searched it on internet but I haven’t find it’s meaning anywhere…. Help meeee…

Roberto Cesar 22/11/2014

Hi Anna,

I can’t thank you enough for helping me so much my English. Thank you a thousand
of time!!
My example is: I wish I spoke English as good as you speak.

    Ana 25/11/2014

    Roberto,
    You’re welcome, and keep at it (=insista) – principalmente, siga as dicas de Listening (Como Falar Inglês) que vc verá progresso :)

Jonata fontela 10/11/2014

Hi Ana!
I wish I didin’t have to work on Saturdays :)

    Helene 15/12/2016

    N&trruo;impoqse quoi, Free ne fait pas du tout cela pour les beaux yeux de leurs clients, c’est parce qu’il se refusent de rendre ce service à l’état gratuitement. Il veulent être rémunérer pour balancer leurs clients ou leurs envoyer des mails de réprimande. Vous êtes si naïfs!

João Paulo 07/11/2014

Hi Ana!
Congradulations for your podcast.

My example is…”I wish I had more facilities for learning English.”

Fatima Regina 07/11/2014

Hi Ann! What’s up!

So this is my example: “Many people are not good, I wish they were more sociable and sincere”.
Thanks!

Jennifer 06/11/2014

Hi Ana! About it I think just like you: Twenty four hours is not enough to do everything I have to. If only the day had more hours, I could have more fun, because right now , even at weekend I’m overbusy. So that’s my wish…

Bye ,Ana!

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