Explain the verb tense in "I wish I never woke up this morning"


This is from a song by Police, Darkness:



"I can dream up schemes when I'm sitting in my seat
I don't see any flaws 'til I get to my feet
I wish I never woke up this morning
Life was easy when it was boring"



Shouldn't it be, according to www.eslbase.com, "I wish I havn't hadn't woken up this morning"? (though I agree the latter flows worse)



Answer



Strictly speaking, by the rules of grammar, it should be



I wish I'd never woken up this morning.



But if you Google "I wish I never" you find that lots of people use constructions like



I wish I never woke up this morning.



For example:



I wish I never told you,
I wish I never met you,
I wish I never ever got drunk that night.



So, while strictly speaking this should probably be called bad grammar, it is nevertheless a quite common usage.


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