# Yet another grammar question

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-question/306568
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 2, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-question/306568 "2005-06-02T16:55:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-question/306568/1 "2005-06-02T16:55:56Z")

</div>

It’s the subjunctive that’s causing me fits today.

Okay, so these phrases are correct:

“If I were a professional”

and

“I wish I were a professional.”

But what about this one:

“I played well, as if I were a professional.” Should it be were or was?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-question/306568/2 "2005-06-02T17:21:33Z")

</div>

I’m assuming you are not a professional and you are not proposing a possibility in which you might be.

I say stick with “were.”

You could also say “had been.”

“If I was” is used for conditional statements. Your examples here are properly subjunctive.