If I were a painter

Listen to the song by Norah Jones while you do this activity.
 This first video has good sound quality, but it's just a still photo.

 What would the singer like to be? A painter, right?

 She wishes she were a painter.

   Click here to see if you can understand the meaning of this use of "wish".

Click here to practise further.

Click here for a BBC explanation of "hope" and "wish"

 If you would like to enjoy the song again, but with a proper video, here's a short animation movie made with the song, although it has poor sound quality.

 I wish we could have this video with good sound! 

I guess you just can't have it all!

 Songwriters love to dream and imagine of what life could be like, don't they?. Maybe that is one of the main reasons why they write their songs: to tell us about how things would be in hypothetical situations. I'm sure you know other songs which use the 2nd conditional. Share them with us on "Our own Blog".