Read the traveler's complaint and choose the correct verb to complete their thought.

Wedged into the middle seat of a tiny airplane, Marcus looked at his knees touching his chin and sighed, "I really wish I ___ just a bit shorter."

The correct answer is were.

When making a wish about a present state or situation that we want to be different, we use wish + past simple. For the verb to be, it is grammatically standard to use the subjunctive form were for all subjects (I, you, he, she, it, we, they).

We cannot use would here because we do not use wish + would with state verbs or when the subject of the wish is the same as the person wishing (I wish I would...).