I was never taught this about the English language until I took French IV, but: Is it true that the following conditional phrases beginning with the pronoun “I” should read as: “I wish I were” (not was) and “If I were” (not was), repsectively? Do any our US Dopers recall being taught this in grades, say 1-8?
Any other such phrases come to mind which follow this rule?
Doesn’t really matter that the pronoun is “I.” The same goes for “I wish he were…” and so on.
Also “If I were. . .” (not was)
Look up the subjunctive mood in your friendly grammar book and all will be made clear.
Yes, the conditional phrases you mention should read “I wish were” or “If I were.” As Scarlett67 pointed out this is the subjunctive mood of the verb in question. In these cases use of “was” doesn’t really work because it’s the past tense form of the verb. Use of the past tense would change the meaning of the sentence and leads you down the primrose path of counterfactual reasoning.
As far as I know, use of the subjunctive is considerably more prominent in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian than English. As for the early education of this stuff, nope. I wasn’t exposed to it until high school language study and didn’t really get my head around it until I started speaking Spanish (or more correctly, started trying to speak in Spanish) several years later.
I grew up saying, “I wish I (he, they) were” and still do. But when I wrote a book and it was published in England, the English copy editor had obviously never heard of the subjunctive and wanted sentences like, “A sufficient condition that something have…” to “A sufficient condition that something has”. She obviously believed that it was a typo. And remember, this was a professional copy editor. So I conclude that the subjunctive has died in England and is probably moribund on this side of the pond, otherwise the question wouldn’t have been raised. 'Tis a living language, as my son keeps reminding me.
The subjunctive survived at least until the 60s. (Rent Hairspray, it’s a great song…)
The subjunctive is alive and well – watch how many grammar police jump you if you say something on the order of “If I was President…”
An “if” clause nearly always governs it, and a “that” clause, whether expressed or implied, establishing a condition contrary to fact, will govern it as well. “I wish (that) I were, e.g., an Oscar Meyer wiener” is expressing a desire for a condition contrary to fact. “I’m glad I’m a member of the Teeming Millions,” of course, does not express a CC2F, and hence takes the indicative. But “Wildest Bill wishes he were still a member here” does involve the required CC2F, and hence takes the subjunctive.
Note that the “were” for all forms use is the past subjunctive, which some insanity about verb tense sequences calls for in most sentences. But the present subjunctive, recognizable simply by the absence of the “-s” in the third singular and the verb “be” instead of “am, is, are,” still shows up from time to time: “If there be any person present who can show a reason why this couple should not be wed…” “If the Senate agree, then the treaty shall go into force at the time set by the President.”
And, of course, the rarest verb form in English is the second person singular past subjunctive “wert,” which survives only in “Hail to thee, blythe spirit; bird thou never wert” and “…which wert and art and evermore shalt be” (though why addressing God with that doxology calls for the subjunctive is beyond me).
There is a case of the subjunctive mood where “was” is appropriate.
What y’all are giving examples of are counterfactuals, where you’re admitting that something is false. If I were not a native speaker of English, I’d have trouble with that.
There’s another kind of subjunctive, where you aren’t commenting on the truth of the hypothesis of your conditional. If I was smart, I’d be able to remember the name of it.
The fact that the language cops jump on it prove that it is dying. if it were alive, they wouldn’t have much occasion to and if it were dead they would’ve given up. However, I was actually talking about its use in some “that” clauses. Which do not have to be counter-factual, merely conditionally factual, as in my example. I guess the if form is not nearly as moribund, even in England.
Treble falsehood there, Ultra:
However, the subjunctive is a verb mode (or “mood”), a given set of verb forms to be used in particular circumstances, and not a syntactic construction, though some such constructions call for it. What you’re speaking of is the conditional that does not imply contrariness to fact, and therefore governs the indicative mode verb. “If I were to become King, then I would…” But Prince Charles would say “When I become king, then I will…”