Is there any difference when I say I wish I were rich or I wish I had been rich?
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3Hello, Khan. This level of question is suitable for our sister site, ELL, but as it's your first time here ... Try adding a temporal adverbial. I wish I were rich now / now that I need money for the business venture. I wish I had been rich then / when I was in Paris / in my youth. The use of 'were' in 'I wish I were' is a usage often known as the subjunctive mood (here, the 'volitional subjunctive': I'm not rich, but I really desire to be rich), and is not the same 'were' that occurs in say 'We were poor at that time'. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 02 '14 at 09:50
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were is also used in a contra-factual sense. See [ell.se] – Kris Aug 02 '14 at 10:39