EXPRESS LIKES, WISHES AND PREFERENCES

EXPRESS LIKES

                                               Express likes      

Como regla general, recuerda que los verbos que expresan tus preferencias (like, love, dislike, etc) solo admiten dos opciones gramaticales en lo que al verbo se refiere:

Infinitivo + to

Forma –ing

Puedes decir I like to play o I like playing, pero nunca I like play. La diferencia es prácticamente inexistente sobre todo a este nivel, así que ambas opciones son válidas. Algunos de los verbos que necesitarás para expresar tus gustos en inglés son (de mayor a menor grado):

Example:

·         I love reading – me encanta leer

·         I quite like singing – cantar me gusta bastante

·         I like doing sport – me gusta hacer deporte

·         I don’t mind cooking – no me importa cocinar

·         I don’t like cleaning – no me gusta limpiar

·         I hate running – odio correr

A la hora de preguntar a alguien por sus gustos, usamos distintas preguntas, siempre teniendo en cuenta lo dicho arriba sobre el verbo. Algunas de ellas pueden ser Do you like…? What do you think of….? Do you enjoy…?, en las que necesitaremos un verbo, o una segunda opción son What do you like to do in your free time?, What are your hobbies?

·         Do you like playing chess?

·         What do you think of cooking?

·         Do you enjoy making plans?

EXPRESS WISHES 

The phrase I wish I had… is the most common structure used to talk about our wishes. Here are some common wishes people have.

EXAMPLE:

·         I wish I had more money.

·         I wish I had more friends.

·         I wish I had a bigger house.

·         I wish I was taller.

·         I wish I was more beautiful.

·         I wish I had curly hair.

·         I wish I had blue eyes.

·         I wish I had a caring husband.

·         I wish I had a cute daughter.

·         I wish I had a better memory.

Note the use of past tense verbs in this structure.

In the phrase I wish I had… ‘had’ is the simple past form of the verb ‘have’. Instead of had, you can use the simple past form of other verbs as well.

EXAMPLE:

·         I wish I spoke French.

·         I wish I knew Italian.

·         I wish I looked smarter.

·         I wish I drove a Ferrari.

·         I wish I lived in Shanghai.

·         I wish I had a golden voice.

·         I wish I knew more people.

·         I wish I played the piano.

Although we use past tense forms in this structure, we are not referring to the past in these sentences. Instead, we are merely expressing our wishes in the present.

To talk about past wishes, we can use the structure I wish I had had… Note that the second had in this structure is the past participle form of have. Past participle forms of other verbs are also possible in this case.

EXAMPLE:

·         I wish I had had more money.

·         I wish I had worked harder. (= I didn’t work harder, but now I regret it.)

·         I wish I had had more time on my business trip last week.

·         I wish I hadn’t trusted him.

·         I wish I had listened to his advice.

EXPRESS  PREFERENCES

There are many ways to talk about your preferences in English. You can use some common phrases and expressions below to express your preferences::00

Questions about preferences:

 Which do you prefer, football or volleyball?

 Which do you like better, tea or coffee?

 Do you prefer hot coffee or ice coffee?

 Would you prefer to go for a walk or see a movie?

 Would you rather have dinner with me?

Expressing Preferences:

 I prefer tea to coffee.

 I’d prefer to have some water.

 I like tea better than coffee.

 I prefer reading books.

 I prefer jogging to running.

 I’d prefer living in a city to living in the country.

 I would rather go home.

 I’d rather stay at home than go out.

 I’d rather take a nap than go for a walk.

 I’d rather play football than golf.