Present wishes (kâsh / ey kâsh)

Making a Wish: کاش and ای کاش

To express a wish about a current situation that is not true—or to dream of ideal conditions—start your sentence with the word کاش (I wish). For a slightly more emphatic tone, you can use ای کاش.

Just like in English, Farsi uses past tense forms to talk about unreal situations in the present.

Wishes with Action Verbs

To wish that a different action were happening right now, use the Past Continuous tense (می + Simple Past).

Wishes with State Verbs

When wishing for a state, use the Simple Past forms of verbs like داشتن (to have) and بودن (to be).

Multiple Conditions and Negation

If you want to wish for something not to be the case, negate the past tense verb as you normally would (for example, بود becomes نبود). You can easily combine state and action verbs in the same sentence.

Wishing for Ability

To say "I wish I could...", use the Past Continuous form of توانستن (to be able to), followed by the main action verb in the Present Subjunctive.

In Spoken Persian

When chatting in casual situations, these phrases follow the standard rules of spoken Farsi. Pronouns shift (آن‌ها becomes اون‌ها) and verb endings shorten (می‌کردند becomes می‌کردن).