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Coreytaylor Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Was/Were

i've always thought that you should say I WAS, but, this might sound a bit silly, beyonce sings If I WERE a boy. Why? Help plz, this makes me confused. when should you use WAS / WERE?
  

Top answer

In choice English, it is preferable to say "I were" when you are talking about something that is not true: If I were handsome (I'm not); If I were the president (of course, I'm not); If this were the year 1930 (it's actually 2009). You will hear native speakers say "I was" in this kind of sentence because (a) they did not learn the "correct" way or (b) they do not want to use it. S.

— Anonymous

  • In choice English, it is preferable to say "I were" when you are talking about something that is not true: If I were handsome (I'm not); If I were the president (of course, I'm not); If this were the year 1930 (it's actually 2009).
  • You will hear native speakers say "I was" in this kind of sentence because (a) they did not learn the "correct" way or (b) they do not want to use it.
  • S.
  • It's called the subjunctive.
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6 Answers
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In choice English, it is preferable to say "I were" when you are talking about something that is not true: If I were handsome (I'm not); If I were the president (of course, I'm not); If this were the year 1930 (it's actually 2009). You will hear native speakers say "I was" in this kind of sentence because (a) they did not learn the "correct" way or (b) they do not want to use it. P.S. It's call
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Beyonce says "If I were a boy".
Gwen Stefani says "If I was a rich girl".

Answer: both are ok, although you should try to only use "were" in formal writing and in English tests.

Look around this forum, there are millions of threads on this.
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Hi

There's no need for confusion. It's very simple.

Normally we say:
  • I was
  • you were
  • he/she/it was
  • we were
  • you were
  • they were
But Beyonce sings 'if I were a boy...'. --> What she sings is also correct.


  • If I were president, I'd change everything.
  • If I were a bit
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Thank you so much, that really made things easier!
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dokterjokkebrokIf we have the word 'if' in a sentence, most people change 'was' into 'were'.
I've been paying close attention to this for several years, and I think it's more of a 50-50 situation. Nevertheless, I don't have any more definite data than my personal observations.
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