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Guest Posted 21 years ago
Linguistics Studies

I wish I was/were there

*71*0 01p

00Which is grammatically correct and why:02p

01ol
    01li
  1. 00I wish I were there. 02li
    2. 01li
  2. 00I wish I was there.02li
    3. 02ol
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Top answer

*71*0 01p 00Both are grammatically correct because in modern English, the only thing needed to express a counterfactual situation is a past tense verb. 02p 01pre 00If I was you = I'm not you, 02br 02pre 01p 00just as, 02p 01pre 00If I were you = I'm not you. 02p 00 0-

— Ranchhand

  • *71*0 01p 00Both are grammatically correct because in modern English, the only thing needed to express a counterfactual situation is a past tense verb.
  • 02p 01pre 00If I was you = I'm not you, 02br 02pre 01p 00just as, 02p 01pre 00If I were you = I'm not you.
  • 02p 00 0-
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76 Answers
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*71*0 01p

00Both are grammatically correct because in modern English, the only thing needed to express a counterfactual situation is a past tense verb. 02p

01pre
00If I was you = I'm not you, 02br
02pre
01p

00just as, 02p

01pre
00If I were you = I'm not you. 02br
02pre
01p

00It works the same wa

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*71*0 01p

01b00My opinion:02b02p

01p

00Each ESL student has their own purpose of learning English.02p

01pre
00If your purpose is just to talk with native speakers, you can use "I wish I was". 02pre
01p

00If you want to study something by reading books or other forms of formal documents written in English, it would be

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*71*0 01p

00The older prescriptive grammars were simply wrong. Their analysis was wrong and the proof they offered was wrong. It was just one more rule that was wrong from the outset. The rule actually changed hundreds of years ago and yet these prescriptive grammars kept on mis analyzing this for centuries. 02br
02br
00A student who isn't made aware of these differ

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0 01blockquote
00The older prescriptive grammars were simply wrong. Their analysis was wrong and the proof they offered was wrong. 12blockquote
12br
00You intrigue me, K. 02br
02br
00Do you have any examples? 02br
02br
00MrP 0-
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0 On second thoughts, K., I don't want to weigh down the thread with learned documentation. See: 02br
02br
05002br
02br
00MrP 040pid109766
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*71*0 01pre
00The correct form is - 01i00I wish I were there.02i02br
02pre
01p

00You use this form to show an "unreal" situation, i.e. the thing you are wishing for is not the way things really are.02p

01p

00You may sometimes hear "was" used, since the subjunctive is relatively uncommon in English and people sometimes for

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0"You may sometimes hear "was" used, since the subjunctive is relatively uncommon in English ..." 02br
02br
05002br
02br
00Googled: Results 1 - 10 of about 5,060,000 English pages for "if I were". 02br
02br
02br
00"... and people sometimes forget to use it, ... ." 02br
02br
05102br
02br
00
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0 If you restrict your search domain to ".edu", the result would be like this: 02br
00 "If I were you" 12,000 02br
00 "If I was you" 689. 02br
00I think people come here to learn the variety of English spoken by educated people. 02br
02br
00paco 0-
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0 01blockquote
00...The older prescriptive grammars were simply wrong. Their analysis was wrong and the proof they offered was wrong. It was just one more rule that was wrong from the outset. The rule actually changed hundreds of years ago and yet these prescriptive grammars kept on misanalyzing this for centuries....12blockquote
12br
00Were you ref
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0 Paco wrote: 02br
02br
00If you restrict your search domain to ".edu", the result would be like this: 02br
00 "If I were you" 12,000 02br
00 "If I was you" 689. 02br
00I think people come here to learn the variety of English spoken by educated people. 02br
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