Learn English – I wish (if) I could buy a bike

conditional-constructions

I know that

I wish (that*) I could buy a bike

is the standard way of expressing wishes of this kind. But can the construction below with (if) be correct/acceptable in any language register?

I wish if I could buy a bike

How about this example here? Sorry could not find one with could. Would might be different.

Blood and oil do not mix. We are not talking about oil here no more.
We're not talking about that. We're talking about basic human lives,
Kuwaitis, Americans, British, you know. You know, I hear these guys
here clapping, but you know, I wish if you would air that stuff,
people in the U.S., all of them, 100 percent, not 49, not 50 percent
of them, 100 percent will clap for that and the rest of the world. I
never thought in my life I would call for war, never. But this is-
this is not a call for war. This is a call for help.

Source: People Trapped in Kuwait – ABC Nightline 1990 via COCA

This one is tricky to me. It has the wish and might be conditional too.

UNIDENTIFIED-REPOR: Tonight, police need your help.
UNIDENTIFIED-FEMAL: I just wish if somebody knew something, please
call the police department. UNIDENTIFIED-REPOR: Who took mother of two Tiffany Brown?

Source: Young Woman Dies After Botched Buttocks Injection; NANCY GRACE 8:00 PM EST 2011 via COCA

*Edit: Without that is the informal style of this wish construction. Just to not mislead any ELL readers.

Best Answer

No, the addition of if here is not grammatical.

An alternate construction, which you probably know, is:

I wish that I could buy a bike.


Regarding your edits:

Both of your examples revolve around conditional statements. In the first, it is the speaker's hope that, if whatever he is talking about were to air in the US, everyone would clap. You could rephrase his statement by saying:

I wish that, if [US broadcasting companies] would air that stuff, people in the U.S., all of them, 100 percent...would* clap..."

Likewise, in the second example the woman's wish is that people would call the police department if they knew anything about the situation. It could be rephrased as:

I just wish that/It is my hope that, if somebody knew something [about the situation], they would call the police department

In both contexts, the use of English is rather informal because of its spoken nature. The speakers, in both cases, mix up their tenses, and use colloquial construction in their speech.

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