correct usage of were and was

Hello! Perhaps, this will help you:

conditional

Hi Anon,

I believe your question is somehow related to ‘subjunctive mood’ in English, and I would like to touch base on this topic. One of the functions of subjunctive mood is to express an idea or a statement that is contrary or hypothetical to real present. In such cases, the past form of ‘to be’ verb (is/am/was/were...etc) is always ‘were’, regardless of the

Following up on rishonly's comments,

Use "If it were" for a hypothetical, contrary-to-fact situation in the present.
Use "If it was" for a real situation in the past.

(This is the same for "I", "he", and "she". "we", "you", and "they" are always "were", of course.)

If it were a fake, the chemical analysis would show it.
If it was a fake, it was a very

99% of the time you are correct. The only time you use if and was together is if the statement is not presumed to be untrue

for instance "If I were superman ""is correct. It is obvious I am not superman

But - "if he was away all day he wouldn't answer is phone is also correct because his being away all day is presumed to be true.

CalifJim,

Perhaps you can help me. What if you are teasing something that is in fact true with the proposal that it is so sought-after that it is assumed to not be true? For example: "Imagine if it (were/was) available now."

Let's use a unicorn as an example:

"Imagine if a unicorn (was/were) found today." In reality, a unicorn was found today, and I am simply pres

I don't find imagine if to be a very usual combination of words. It strikes me as ungrammatical. It's imagine that ..., so I don't think your questions about if really fit here. I would say Imagine that a unicorn was found today. And none of the rules about verb forms after if really apply.
Other combinations:
If a unicorn were found today, I

If John McCain was elected... or If John McCain were elected...

Hi,
If John McCain was elected... or If John McCain were elected...

Since the election is now in the past, say neither. Instead, say
If John McCain had been elected...

Best wishes, Clive

"Corpora" - that is large collections of various kinds of text, such as newspaper articles, fiction, scientific articles, recorded conversation and radio programmes - show that as a past subjunctive "was" is a very frequent alternative to "were", and the most frequent form in informal language.

Hey! Another quick question:
Which is more correct, "I wish John were here." or "I wish John was here." ?

Thanks! ^^