As if + is / was / were

Question

Which of the three is correct?My mother is crying as if she (is / was / were) a little girl.An explanation in my dictionary seems to say both “was” and “were” are used. Is that right? Is “is” also OK?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

"As if" rules out "is". "Were" is subjunctive. The subjunctive is used more in America than in Britain, and it is used everywhere much less nowadays than it used to be. "Was" is a failure to use the subjunctive. That does not make it wrong. "Was" just shows that the subjunctive is dying. That said, this American would use "were" in formal writing, and he would probably say "was" without thinking.

BillJ · Answer

My mother is crying as if she is / was / were a little girl.

All three forms are possible. The "as if" construction is one of those that allow irrealis "were" or a modal preterite like "was".

Where the matrix clause has present tense, as it does here, we have a contrast in the content clause between "were" or modal preterite ("was") and present tense ("is").

Neither "was" nor "were" here refers to past time; rather, they both express modality, particularly "were". "Was" is a tense form called a modal preterite, while "were" is a mood form called 'irrealis'.

The difference between "was" and "were" is largely one of style level: "were" is here somewhat more formal that "was", and tends to be preferred by older speakers.

This use of irrealis mood "were" is highly exceptional: there is no other verb in the language where the modal remoteness meaning is expressed by a different inflectional form from the past time meaning. It's an untidy relic of an earlier system, and many speakers usually, if not always, use preterite "was" instead.

Note: Despite what you may read elsewhere, this use of "were" is not the so-called (and ill-named) 'past subjunctive' – a misnomer if ever there was one.

As if + is / was / were

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