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

[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.