Yuck!

One of my most hated grammatical errors is any variation of the expression, "I wish I would have known." My detestation of this misuse has caused me to be labelled as a grammar Nazi and I don't care. It drives me mad. Twenty years ago only the most illiterate persons would use such an expression. Today it is epidemic. It is used by supposedly educated people and even newscasters. Recently I saw it used on a United States Post Office commercial. I tried to find that commercial to put on this blog with no luck at all. But I was surprised at how many things popped up on Google just by typing, "I wish I would have known."

Rule:
When talking about something that did not happen in the past, you can't use the conditional perfect (if I would have). You must use the past perfect (if I had). Correct:" If I had known that you were at the party,I would have gone."Incorrect:" If I would have known that you were at the party, I would have gone" The same is true if you toss a wish in there. "I wish I had gone", not "I wish I would have gone". But then I can't imagine why any literate person needs to have this explained to them. Your ear should tell you how offensively wrong, "If I would have..." is.