5 exercises — practise expressing wishes and regrets with "wish" and "if only" in retrospectives.
0 / 11 completed
1 / 11
Which sentence correctly expresses a present wish about a limitation in the current system?
"I wish the API supported pagination" is correct: to express a wish about a present, unreal situation, "wish" is followed by the past simple, even though the meaning is present ("it doesn't support pagination now, and I regret that"). Option A uses the present simple "supports", which is not how unreal present wishes are formed after "wish". Option C uses "will support", a future form that "wish" does not take for present-time complaints. Option D uses the present continuous "is supporting", which is also incorrect after "wish" for a stative, ongoing limitation.
2 / 11
Which sentence correctly expresses regret about a past decision in a postmortem, using "if only"?
"If only we had tested the migration script on staging first" is correct: regret about a past action (or failure to act) uses "if only" + past perfect, mirroring the third conditional. Option A uses the past simple, which expresses a present wish, not regret about a completed past event. Option C uses "would test", which is used for complaints about repeated behavior, not a single completed past mistake. Option D uses the present simple, which does not express regret about the past at all.
3 / 11
Which sentence correctly uses "wish...would" to express annoyance at a colleague's repeated, ongoing behavior?
"I wish he would stop merging unreviewed pull requests" is correct: "wish...would" expresses irritation at another person's repeated or willful action that the speaker wants to change, and is not used for the speaker's own actions or for stative verbs. Option A uses the past simple, which would suggest a hypothetical single state rather than a request for changed behavior. Option C uses the present simple, which is ungrammatical after "wish" in this sense. Option D uses "will", which "wish" never takes.
4 / 11
Which sentence correctly expresses a wish about one's own current skill level, a stative situation?
"I wish I understood distributed consensus algorithms better" is correct: for a present wish about one's own state or ability, "wish" takes the past simple of a stative verb like "understand", not "would". Option A incorrectly uses "would", which is reserved for wishing that someone else's (typically willful, non-stative) behavior would change, not one's own understanding. Option C uses the present simple, which is not the form "wish" requires. Option D incorrectly uses "will".
5 / 11
Which sentence correctly uses "if only" to express a strong, present-tense hypothetical wish about system architecture?
"If only the monolith were easier to split into services" is correct in formal technical register: for present unreal wishes, especially with "be", the subjunctive "were" is preferred over "was" (though "was" is common informally, "were" is the standard, safer choice in written technical English). Option A uses the present simple, which fails to mark the wish as unreal. Option B uses "was", which is acceptable informally but less precise than the subjunctive "were" expected in formal documentation. Option D uses "will be", a future form that "if only" does not take for a present hypothetical.
6 / 11
David says in a Slack message: "I wish I could just teleport to the server room and fix this!"
David is using 'wish' to express an impossible desire – a stative situation. He's not wishing for a change in the present; he's stating what he *wishes* he had (teleportation). Options A and D are irrelevant and humorous; option C uses 'wish' incorrectly, implying a desired action.
7 / 11
David says in a Slack message: "I wish I could just teleport to the server room and fix this!"
David is using 'wish' to express an impossible desire – a stative situation. He's not wishing for a change in the present; he's stating what he *wishes* he had (teleportation). Options A and D are irrelevant and humorous; option C uses 'wish' incorrectly, implying a desired action.
8 / 11
David says in a Slack message: "I wish I could just teleport to the server room and fix this!"
David is using 'wish' to express an impossible desire – a stative situation. He's not wishing for a change in the present; he's stating what he *wishes* he had (teleportation). Options A and D are irrelevant and humorous; option C uses 'wish' incorrectly, implying a desired action.
9 / 11
David says in a Slack message: "I wish I could just teleport to the server room and fix this!"
David is using 'wish' to express an impossible desire – a stative situation. He's not wishing for a change in the present; he's stating what he *wishes* he had (teleportation). Options A and D are irrelevant and humorous; option C uses 'wish' incorrectly, implying a desired action.
10 / 11
During a standup meeting, Sarah says: "If only we had automated tests for this module!" What does she mean?
Sarah uses "if only" to express a regret about a past decision – not writing automated tests. This indicates she wishes things were different in the present, specifically regarding testing practices. The other options misinterpret the use of 'if only' as expressing frustration or suggesting immediate action.
11 / 11
In a code review comment, Alex says: 'If only we'd implemented proper logging from the start! Now debugging this is a nightmare.' What does Alex mean?
Alex uses 'if only' to express regret about a past decision – not implementing proper logging. The phrase implies he wishes things had been done differently in the past, focusing on the negative consequences of that earlier choice. It's distinct from simply suggesting logging now or expressing frustration.
What will I practise in "Wishes and Regrets (wish / if only) — IT Grammar Exercise"?
Practise "wish" and "if only" with past simple for present wishes, past perfect for past regrets, and "would" for complaints about others' behavior, in
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This module has 11 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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