[quote=“derek1978”]The sentence was a topic for an essay:
“If I were an Adult”
I corrected her, saying it should be:
“If I was an Adult” or “If I were to be an Adult”
She said that “were” is future tense and can be used like she used it. But, it just sounds funky to me. I always was taught that “were” belongs to plural nouns, such as: “We were” “They were” etc…[/quote]
In that case, how did you come up with “If I were to be an adult”? According to your logic it should be “If I was to be an adult”.
“If I were an adult” is correct. I would only say “if I was” if I were/was trying to sound more working class than I really am.
Many native speakers (including myself) would use ‘I was’ in the subjunctive. It sounds right to me and we’ve all dropped other features of older forms of English like ‘ye’ and ‘thee’. So why shouldn’t drop this archaism? On the other hand, the strong reaction this issue provokes from traditionalists means that you need to consider your audience carefully before deciding to ignore this grammar rule. The key, I think, is to make an informed choice.[/quote]
Jeez, techwhirler is still around? Amazing, I would have thought those guys would have disappeared up their own butts years ago…
I love how anytime a certain segment of semi-literates get caught out, the old Prescriptive vs. Descriptive chestnut is frantically deployed.
You know it, you love it…cherished the world over by the indolent…now in its fourth decade of abuse by the imprecise, fueling rationalisation and justifying sub-standard practice.
Be kind enough to cite anything that qualifies the standard rule in question as an archaism…and in what possible context the subjunctive form can be equated with Middle English pronouns.
Let me guess, what’s next…oh, how about “its” vs “it’s”…surely the single most commonly made error in written English, if one judges by its occurrence in the bulk of Internet-based composition.
What Derek was saying would be the second type. But when teaching a class teachers should lean towards teaching a proper 2nd conditional and avoid teaching mixed conditionals.
Well, Mr. defender-of-the-faith, try bartleby.com/64/C001/061.html. Note the distinction they make between ‘traditional rules’ and ‘reality’.
Especially:
[quote]
if clauses—the reality. In practice, of course, many people ignore the rules. In fact, over the last 200 years even well-respected writers have tended to use the indicative was where the traditional rule would require the subjunctive were. A usage such as If I was the only boy in the world may break the rules, but it sounds perfectly natural.[/quote]
My position is that the standard usage is ‘I were’ but that writers can and should make an informed decision about whether to follow this rule depending on the level of formality they are striving for.
Incidentally, ‘ye’ and ‘thee’ appear throughout Old, Middle, and Early Modern English.
[quote=“Bassman”]Could be worse. You could have had to teach the meaning of the word “ironic” using the song by Alanis.
BTW, I had to once. I bent the rules though and used it as an example of things that aren’t ironic at all.[/quote]
‘Ironic’ according to Alanis - “It’s like rain on your wedding day.” <~ not ironic.
‘Ironic’ according to Imani - “It’s like rain on your wedding day when you’re marrying a meterologist or a psychic.” <~ ironic.
My mother never went beyond her first year of junior college, but it was always, “If I were you…” albeit it, usually used in a threat when we got into trouble, but even she knew to use the subjunctive mood correctly.
[quote=“ImaniOU”][quote=“Bassman”]Could be worse. You could have had to teach the meaning of the word “ironic” using the song by Alanis.
BTW, I had to once. I bent the rules though and used it as an example of things that aren’t ironic at all.[/quote]
‘Ironic’ according to Alanis - “It’s like rain on your wedding day.” <~ not ironic.
‘Ironic’ according to Imani - “It’s like rain on your wedding day when you’re marrying a meterologist or a psychic.” <~ ironic.
My mother never went beyond her first year of junior college, but it was always, “If I were you…” albeit it, usually used in a threat when we got into trouble, but even she knew to use the subjunctive mood correctly.[/quote]
“It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife” ~not ironic
but if you’d been searching for a knife and after all that discover that a spoon would have done the trick… well, how’s about them apples?