Can a grammar wizard help me?

[pat]

When I write or speak, I keep finding myself saying "If I were..." or "If he were..." Intellectually, I keep thinking those should be "was", since the verb is singular. (Interestingly enough, I am less likely to use "were" if there is a noun rather than a pronoun in the sentence.)

I'm trying to figure out why I do this. Is there some sort of, I don't know, speculative verb tense?

Comments

Re: Subjunctive Mood

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

or you would use the past subjunctive, "If he had been at the concert, we would have been able to find ..." (although I'm not sure about the distinction between should and would).

Re: Subjunctive Mood

[adriang.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I don't remember hearing that wording described as past subjunctive, but it makes perfect sense. Functionally, it seems to work exactly the same as "were" in present subjunctive.

Adrian

Re: Subjunctive Mood

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Yet another thing that I learned about in Latin or French before realizing that we had it in English too.