Which one of these 2 sentences is correct?
I always thought that “was” related to a single subject, but I constantly hear and read “were” relating to a single subject. I often read examples of the 2nd sentence in newspapers. Is the 2nd sentence correct?
“If I were King…” is correct. It is the subjunctive tense which is used for wishes, hypotheticals and contrary-to-fact statements.
Just to expand on what roberthfm said (he’s absolutely correct), “were” is an instance of the subjunctive mood, introduced here by “if”. In the indicative mood, “was” is the correct form for first-person agreement.
Which would be great if English were Latin :), but it isn’t. I think this is one of those uses that’s well on the way to becoming interchangeable. Much like the distinction between who and whom.
I don’t mind this one as it is a generalization of another conjugation. Frankly, “I was” sounds much more natural than “I were”. I think I still get this one “correctly” in my speech, but I don’t know if I’d notice anything amiss if someone I had a conversation with used “was” instead.
As a person who hires people for a newspaper, I like to know I have educated (or literate - not always the same) people working with me. In the interview portion of the hiring process, I always ask an “If you were…” question to see how they answer, and a few other questions which can test a person’s usage (you know, who and whom, eliptical clauses, etc.)
If everything else is relatively equal, I will usually give the nod to the one who speaks correctly.
TV
Correct me if I be wrong, but didn’t the English subjunctive come from Old English? It wasn’t an imported Latinism but has always been native to English. Not every subtlety of English grammar is a result of Latin influence.
The subjunctive is useful because it conveys more information in a concise way. It seems to be dying out in Britain, but it lives on in America. One more instance of how American use of the language is often more conservative than the British.
All well and good, but how do you compensate for the fact that many people speak in a much less formal register than the one in which they write (even in job interviews)? Why not set them a written exercise if you want to test their usage?
For what it’s worth, the answers already given explain the appropriateness of the phrase “as it were,” which is something about which I was considering asking here. I had only gotten as far as finding that “as it were” is short for “as if it were so.” [Google search of “as it were” will drop the “as” and the “it.” On the plus side, it will find almost 80 million pages for you.] Subjunctive tense, it would seem, gives me trouble, too. But then, I’m working with a public school education, as it were.
Just thought I’d share.
TomH:
We do also do a written test, and the interview satisfies other requirements also, but I still feel if a person speaks correctly, he will be more likely to write correctly and edit well too.
You will remember that I said, “If everything else is equal…”, so if it comes down to a tie, that is the tie breaker.
TV