Carol Tips

TAPESCRIPT  

As you know, in all countries, it is a common practice to write fast notes or messages, expressing wishes for the people we love, to our friends or to our business partners, celebrating their birthdays, success, accomplishments or promotions.

Today we are going to learn some grammar topics that can be helpful in doing so:

Similar to the farewell sentence used by the Jedis, in Star Wars, “May the force be with you”, we can use the modal verb MAY to express our wishes for someone. Note that, the structure used in this case is MAY + the SUBJECT of the sentence + the VERB in the INFINITIVE (just remember that the infinitive is the BASE FORM of the verb, or the first column, like go, be, do, make)

We can use sentences like:

May you have a prosperous New Year

May all of your wishes come true

May you and your family keep healthy and happy in the coming year

May the odds be ever in your favor.

The next verb we can use is WISH. After this verb, we can use a SUBJECT and a NOUN, for example:

I wish you happiness and health throughout this year

I wish you an amazing and full of joy new cycle.

I wish you lots of happiness and good luck on your birthday.

When we want to talk about present situations we would like to be different in the future, we can use the structure: WISH + SUBJECT + SIMPLE PAST:

It would be something like:

I wish you were here with me (because you are not)

I wish we could spend your birthday together (since it won’t be possible)

I wish we saw each other more often in this year (I don’t think we see each other often enough)

I wish the pandemic finished, so we could get together and celebrate.

When we use the negative, we have to use didn’t:

I wish you didn’t live so far

I wish we didn’t have to be apart this year.

Remember that when we use DIDN’T, the verb goes back to the INFINITIVE form!

Note that, in case of sentences with verb to be, we do not use didn’t:

I wish you weren’t so far from the family right now.

That’s it! Hope you like it! May you guys have a wonderful and peaceful 2021!