Yes, probably (I don't know the context), but it seems to me that in colloquial US English the traditional complex tense system has been somewhat simplified: perhaps another example of the historical influence of Germans and other non-native speakers in the US. I'm British, of course, so I don't really know what I'm talking about here but I think I've heard native speakers of US English say things that are just wrong, because of the choice of verb tense, in any form of British English that I am familiar with: things like "Did you already do it?", though I can't guarantee that's a good example. Of course it could be that the verb system of colloquial US English is just as complex as the verb system of British English but the subtleties pass me by: I just notice the things that to me seem wrong, like failing to distinguish between "Did you do" and "Have you done".
It's pretty common to use present tenses in US English for events in the future or past. E.g. "I'm at the store the other day, and this guy comes up to me...", "I'm visiting the store later"
Perfect tense is common. Future is occasionally avoided like above. Pluperfect and future perfect are almost never used, and most speakers would convey that meaning a different way. E.g. "I'll visit the store before then" rather than "I'll have visited the store". There is also some pseudo future tenses related to "going/gonna" (e.g. "I'm going to do that").
I think tenses are probably taught in some schools, but I didn't learn any of this until I took other languages. The average US English speaker probably doesn't know the names of all the tenses and doesn't even know what subjunctive, indicative, etc. mean.
Yep, for example, it's standard for US speakers to say "I wish you would have done X instead" whereas Brits would say that should be "I wish you had done X instead". I believe that that construction is a past subjunctive (since it's counterfactual) and therefore that the Brits are essentially right here ("had" is a past subjunctive form but "would have" is not; it's a conditional).
This is not standard or correct in American English either, though interestingly, German uses the same form for both situations ("ich wünsche, du hättest es getan" vs "du hättest es getan, wenn..."), so if that construction is more common in American English it's possible that it's due in part to the influence of German speakers.
That's interesting. While perhaps not "standard", I'd definitely say it is very common among educated US speakers. Not to blame Bruce Springsteen -- who for all I know might have been trying to depict via grammatical error a certain sort of person in his song -- but for me it always brings to mind the song Bobby Jean. But now I see that apparently that is "wished" not "wish" so it's extra confusing :)
Me and you, we've known each other
Yeah, ever since we were sixteen
I wished I would have known
I wished I could have called you
Just to say "Goodbye, Bobby Jean"
> Yep, for example, it's standard for US speakers to say "I wish you would have done X instead" whereas Brits would say that should be "I wish you had done X instead".
Maybe that is something some Americans might say, but it is certainly not the most natural way I would say it.
I would likely say "I wish you'd done X instead" or "I wish you'd X'd"
Yes, probably (I don't know the context), but it seems to me that in colloquial US English the traditional complex tense system has been somewhat simplified: perhaps another example of the historical influence of Germans and other non-native speakers in the US. I'm British, of course, so I don't really know what I'm talking about here but I think I've heard native speakers of US English say things that are just wrong, because of the choice of verb tense, in any form of British English that I am familiar with: things like "Did you already do it?", though I can't guarantee that's a good example. Of course it could be that the verb system of colloquial US English is just as complex as the verb system of British English but the subtleties pass me by: I just notice the things that to me seem wrong, like failing to distinguish between "Did you do" and "Have you done".