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I often hear (or read) a construct along the lines of "I wish I would have ". Here is a recent example:

I wish I would have written a post guessing at Facebook’s new name [...]

This wish-I-would-have form has never sounded correct to my ear; I would only ever say "I wish I had written..." in this case. I've always believed it to be a sort of subjunctive formation (?) error, but it's so common I'd like some definitive ruling on it or further context.

If it's not considered grammatical, why is it so common? Is it a valid dialect or regionalism?

There are other questions on here that deal with adjacent or similar forms but I'm not sure they address this simple question squarely: I'm not asking about when "would-have" could be used, just whether it's correct here. Thanks!

Ben Zotto
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    I don’t see anything ungrammatical. – Jim Oct 30 '21 at 06:17
  • I would never use it. – Kate Bunting Oct 30 '21 at 07:40
  • It's a common variant, complicated by the fact that had and would both contract to /d/ in speech (if sheda done it, if sheddone it), and epenthetic shwas are often added to contractions in speech, only to be interpreted as have's. Oh, and it's not "subjunctive mood"; English doesn't have any. What it does have is modal auxiliaries and fast speech rules, which interact in unfortunate ways. – John Lawler Oct 30 '21 at 20:05

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