Using was and were

Question

If you are starting a sentence such as the one below, do you use was or were.If I were a betting person or do you say If I was a betting person?Thanks

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Use 'were', which is formally correct.

Kooyeen · Answer

I usually use "was", but I use "were" as well. And if I was/were taking an English test, I would try to remember to use "were", just to play it safe. I'm not a native speaker, by the way.

There are literally hundreds of threads about was/were in this forum, and countless discussions on the net, most of which are useless fights between prescriptivists (those who say you must follow their classic old rules) and descriptivists (those who say you should use English the way people actually use it).
If you want to know which one is correct, the question is: what does it mean to be "correct"?
If you want to know which one is used by native speakers, the answer is both.
If you want to know which one is used the most... I don't know, lol. Probably "was" in informal registers, and "were" in formal ones.

Yankee · Answer

KooyeenIf you want to know which one is used the most... I don't know, lol. Probably "was" in informal registers, and "were" in formal ones.

I have always used "were" regardless of register. In other words, I have always said things such as "if I were you, I would..." both in formal AND in informal contexts. It is not a problem to use "were" in any register. It is always correct.

However, in casual conversation, saying something such as "if I was you, I would..." is pretty common nowadays, and I also use it in casual conversation sometimes. It still sounds informal, though, and I would not recommend using it in a more formal context. In a formal context, it will come across to some people as sounding uneducated.

Kooyeen · Answer

YankeeI have always used "were" regardless of register. In other words, I have always said things such as "if I were you, I would..." both in formal AND in informal contexts. It is not a problem to use "were" in any register. It is always correct.

Yeah, that's what I learned too. In other words, it seems "were" is always "appropriate" in most dialects, regardless of the register. And I use it, even though I believe I use "was" more often.

But I'm not a native speaker, and I have no idea which might be more common in informal registers, but I'm sure that varies from place to place and person to person.

Using was and were

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions