was/were conditional sentence

Question

0I know that you are supposed to use 'were' instead of 'was' in a conditional sentence, but am not sure if this is required when the condition does not begin the sentence. 02br02br00 Would this be correct: I wouldn't have done it had I known he were ill. 0-

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

0Use "was" there.02br
02br
00He WAS ill -- that was not the part that is contracty to fact. 02br
02br
00Compare to: If he were ill, he would have let us know.0-

Kooyeen · Answer

0 Hi,02br
00I think you should use "was", but for another reason, not because it's not hypothetical.02br
00After all, you can say 01i00"If I knew where he 01u00lived02u02i00, I would go right over there and set his house on fire"00, even though the fact that he lives somewhere is not hypothetical.02br
02br
00So my opinion is that you don't use "were" forms of subjunctive in subordinate clauses.02br
00An interesting thing, thinking about what GG said, is that I thinkcontrary to fact situations are actually taken into account in thewould-part of a conditional statement (not in the if-part, as shown inthe example above):02br
02br
01b00His girlfriend can always tell if he's lying. If his girlfriend was/were here right now, she would definitely realize he's lying.02b00 (but NOT: ...realize he was/were lying)02br
02br
00Anyway, I'm not a native speaker so I might be wrong. 050010id1

Yankee · Answer

0 01i01span00<< 01b00I wouldn't have done it had I known (that).02b00>> 02span02i02br
02br
00Hi Kooyeen02br
02br
00The original sentence was a type 3 conditional, but your examples were type 2. I look at the original sentence this way:02br
02br
00FACT: He was ill when I did it.02br
00FACT: I didn't know that.02br
02br
00COUNTER-FACTUAL CONDITION: 01i01b00If I had known02b02i00 01i00(that fact)02i02br
00RESULT (if the counter-factual condition had been true): 01b01i00I wouldn't have done it02i02b00.02br
02br
00The fact that he was ill at the time remains a fact. It is the knowledge of the illness that is contrary to past fact. Thus:02br
01i01span00If I had known he was ill, I wouldn't have done it.02span02i02br
02br
00------------------------------------------------------------------------02br
02br
00Let's turn your last sentence into a type 3 conditional:02br
02br
01i01span00- If his girlfriend had been there at the time, she would have realized he was lying.02span02i02br
02br
00FACT 1: He was lying.02br
00FACT 2: His girlfriend wasn't there when he was lying.02br
00FACT 3: Because she wasn't there, she didn't realize (fact 1).02br
02br
00COUNTER-FACTUAL CONDITION: 01i01b00If his girlfriend had been there02b00 at the time02i02br
00RESULT (if the counter-factual condition had been true): 01b01i00she would have realized02i02b00 01i00(that fact)02i0-

Kooyeen · Answer

1blockquote

01cite10Yankee12cite10The fact that he was ill at the time remains a fact. It is the knowledge of the illness that is contrary to past fact. Thus:12br
11i11span10If I had known he was ill, I wouldn't have done it.12span12i12blockquote

10Hi Amy,02br
00yes, but in01i00 "If I knew where she lived, I would go there and..."02i00 there's a fact too, but the tense is backshifted. In your sentence a backshift would sound odd and would probably change the meaning... What I wanted to say is that I don't think the reason why we choose that verb is because it's not counterfactual. Otherwise why "lived" is possible, since it's no counterfactual either?02br
02br
00Hmm, but maybe the fact that it's not counterfactual is a good reason not to use "were" instead, as GG said. And that's what the original posted asked. So if I agree, what am I arguing about? LOL, I think I wanted to find an explanation that probably doesn't make sense. So let's forget it. Sorry. 050010id4

Ruth McEwan · Answer

0Dear anonymous02br
02br
00You only use "were" in 2nd conditional imaginery or hypothetical situations.02br
02br
00eg.02br
02br
01i00If I were you, I'd look for another job.02i02br
02br
00Also I notice in Australia, that the use of "were" is mainly for advice, such as in the sentence I just showed you.02br
02br
00So your sentence should read:-02br
02br
01i00I wouldn't have done it if I'd known he was ill.02i02br
02br
00Regards02br
02br
00Ruth0-

CalifJim · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Anonymous12cite10not sure if this is required when the condition does not begin the sentence.12blockquote

10 The position of the condition within the sentence is irrelevant to the 01i00was/were02i00 issue.02br
02br
01i00If I 01u00were02u00 not sure, I would not tell you this.02i02br
01i00I would not tell you this if I 01u00were02u00 not sure.02i02br
00The problem is that the 01i00was > were02i00 change only applies to the 01u00main02u00 verb of the condition clause. Any other instance of the past tense of 01b00to be02b00 in the condition clause agrees with its subject in the normal way. 02br
01i00Had I 01u00known02u00 he was ill, I wouldn't have done it.02i02br
01i00I wouldn't have done it had I 01u00known02u00 he was ill.02i02br
00CJ 0-

Anonymous · Answer

contracty?

Anonymous · Answer

I think the use of 'was' instead of 'were' in "Had I known he was ill, I wouldn't have done it." is caused by "he was ill' is noun clause and becomes the object of known.

Am I correct?

was/were conditional sentence

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