Vi skulle ønske vi hadde besøkt bestemor oftere mens hun bodde nærmere.

she

Breakdown of Vi skulle ønske vi hadde besøkt bestemor oftere mens hun bodde nærmere.

• ha: to have
• bo: to live
• vi: we

Questions & Answers about Vi skulle ønske vi hadde besøkt bestemor oftere mens hun bodde nærmere.

What does vi skulle ønske literally mean, and does it talk about the present or the past?

Literally, vi skulle ønske is “we should/would wish” (with skulle as the past tense of skal).

In modern Norwegian, though, skulle ønske is a fixed expression that means “we wish” (a regret or unreal wish), and it usually refers to a feeling in the present, not the past.

Compare:

• Vi skulle ønske vi hadde besøkt bestemor oftere …
  → We wish (now) that we had visited Grandma more often (back then).

So:

• The wish itself is felt now.
• The thing you wish had happened (hadde besøkt) is in the past.

You can think of skulle here like the “softening” past in English polite forms:

• I was wondering if… (present request)
• Jeg skulle gjerne… (I would really like to…)

Why is it vi hadde besøkt and not vi besøkte or vi har besøkt?