Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Bill P.]

Why do we say, "If I were" in untrue statements? Normally, of course, we say "I am." For the past tense, we use "I was." But in untrue statements, we switch to "I were." For example, we say (or sing) "If I were a carpenter, and you were a lady, would you marry me anyway?"

The third person singular works the same way. Normally, we say "he, she, or it is." But for untrue conditions, we say "he, she, or it were," as in "If he were alive today, he would be over two hundred years old."

As far as I know, no other verb changes this way. Today my students asked me why we use "were" as the "be" verb for untrue conditions, and all I could say was, that is the way English is. There is no reason.

Does anyone have a better answer?

[obelix]

It is the subjunctive mood.
It is used in matters of urgency, formality, possibility and unreality.

[LucentShade]

Compared to other languages, English does not use special subjunctive forms all that much. "If I were" is a common example. It is used in hypothetical or contrary-to-fact situations:

"If I were a rich man, people would respect me."

"If John were to call you, you would go out with him." (Note that this sentence is often phrased "If John called you. . ."

However, if an if- clause expresses objective fact, there is no subjunctive:

"If you cool water to 0 degrees Celsius, it will freeze."

Sentences with "were" are common examples of the subjunctive, and another kind would be:

"I demand that he arriveon time." (subjunctive-used to express influence or desire)

"I know that he arrives on time." (This is the "indicative" mood, used to express facts, certainty, and reality. This by far the most common mood.)

However, I'm no expert on the English subjunctive, because I learned all this stuff via Spanish. In fact, one of my students this semester, upon reading something in the textbook, asked his friend, "Did you know that English has a subjunctive?"

[Bill P.]

OK, I see now: "were" is the PAST subjunctive. I thought that it couldn't be the subjunctive because "be" is the subjunctive, as in "It is essential that you be on time in this class." But "be" is the PRESENT subjunctive. Correct?

[LucentShade]

Yes, "were" is the past subjunctive, and the use of "be" rather than am/are/is would be the present subjunctive. Usually, the verb "to be" is used as an example for this because it has irregular forms for different subjects. Most of the time, one can't pick out subjunctive forms because they are the same as the standard forms. For instance, in sentences like "I suggest that you leave" and "They want us to die," "you leave" and "to die" are the same as the indicative and infinitive forms, respectively. In contrast, Spanish and other languages would use completely different forms of the verbs "to leave" and "to die" to express the subjunctive or indicative moods.