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English 1b3 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Third Conditional Sentence

I heard the below sentence on an ad about a guy who was travelling too fast and hit a lamp post.

"If he was travelling at 50mph, he would have stopped here"

Why do you think they use 'was' instead of had been'? To sound informal? said it accidentally?

Thanks
  

Top answer

'Were' is disappearing from all but the most formal English.

— Mister Micawber

  • 'Were' is disappearing from all but the most formal English.
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4 Answers
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'Were' is disappearing from all but the most formal English.
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Mister Micawber'Were' is disappearing from all but the most formal English.

Shouldn't it be 'had been'? Not were or was... Since it is talking about something that didn't happen in the past.
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Oh, yes. Well, that's disappearing, too. In spoken English far, far too many people use 'was' to replace both 'were' and 'had been' in this kind of statement for its legitimacy to be ignored.
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Mister Micawberfar too many people use 'was' to replace both 'were' and 'had been' in this kind of statement for its legitimacy to be ignored

Interesting. Thank you.
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