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Ojalá with past actions

 

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Old November 21, 2012, 05:18 PM
LearningSpanish LearningSpanish is offline
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Ojalá with past actions

I was just wondering how common it is to follow ojalá with a past action?

I know I've seen it followed by the past tense subjunctive - Ojalá que estuvieras aquí etc - but that's not talking about an actual past action.

Would it sound strange to follow ojalá by an actual past action that is being regretted, and would there be better ways to express 'your wishing' that something 'did' or 'didn't' happen in the past?

Here's an example sentence that got me wondering about it:

I wish he had had more sense and not driven straight into his father's garage, on his first outing with the licence.

So is this fine?

Ojalá él hubiera tenido más sentido común y no hubiera chocado directamente en el garaje de su papá en su primera excursión sin su permiso de conducir.

or would it sound more natural in another format?

Hubiera sido ideal que él hubiera tenido más sentido...

Desearía que él hubiera tenido sentido común...

Quisiera que .. etc

and although the following to an English ear sounds like the wishing was also done in the past I'm wondering about something like this:

Hubiera deseado .... Me hubiera gustado....

- how does that come across in Spanish? Which would you suggest as the best way to accurately translate the example sentence?

anyways ... I think I should stop there because 'me vuelvo un ocho'

As always, all help gratefully accepted
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  #2  
Old November 22, 2012, 12:17 PM
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Ojalá works fine for a past action, but there are also other ways to express the same idea.

- Ojalá hubiera sido más sensato y no chocara la cochera de su papá en su primera salida sin licencia.
- Si tan sólo hubiera tenido más sentido común...
- Desearía que no hubiera sido tan descuidado para chocar la cochera...
- Hubiera deseado que tuviera más seso y no chocara...
- Me habría gustado que fuera más sensato...
...
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