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Jerry
08-10-2009, 01:51 PM
Can someone explain to me when one should use "I was" and when "I were" should be used.

As in "I wish I still were a student" etc

Also, apologies if this isn't the correct forum
The Better Version
08-10-2009, 03:51 PM
I'm not a grammer guru over here but I believe "I were" is never grammatically sound because it can only be paired with plural nouns such as We, they, people, kids, etc.
Kow
08-10-2009, 04:15 PM
I'm not a grammer guru over here but I believe "I were" is never grammatically sound because it can only be paired with plural nouns such as We, they, people, kids, etc.

This.

For some reason, "Were I..., ..." sounds right to me, whereas "Was I..., ..." doesn't. Like, "Were I evil, I'd take over the world"

But now it doesn't look right either way. Were still looks more right though
Jack
08-10-2009, 06:16 PM
"Were" can be correctly used with singular pronouns. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood#The_subjunctive_in_English

The most common usage of "were" in subjunctive mood is to express a wish or hypothesis: If I were a rich man . . ., I wish you were here, etc. You can get away with using "was" in such places as it doesn't totally fuck the meaning of the sentence and most people don't understand the distinction.

Edit: "Were I evil, . . ." is correct, as you're indicating currently untrue facts, basically.
Jerry
08-10-2009, 09:22 PM
Cheers, Jack, I never quite understood that.
Kow
08-11-2009, 01:14 AM
Edit: "Were I evil, . . ." is correct, as you're indicating currently untrue facts, basically.

Wow. I can't believe I was right on that. It's funny how the mind works sometimes.
Jack
08-11-2009, 01:45 AM
Yeah, really. I ended up with an intuitive understanding of obscure grammatical rules before I actually knew them. Probably from reading so much.
Kow
08-11-2009, 08:13 AM
Yeah, really. I ended up with an intuitive understanding of obscure grammatical rules before I actually knew them. Probably from reading so much.

Ditto bro. I used to read like a motherfucker.


'cause incestuous people are well read, ya know?
Cliche Guevara
08-13-2009, 06:21 AM
Good thread.
Jerry
08-14-2009, 04:00 PM
then thank me :mad:
Dog
08-15-2009, 05:18 PM
"I was" and "I were" are both correct in the subjunctive usage.

Wrong forum.
Jerry
08-15-2009, 07:17 PM
That's better :D
Dog
08-15-2009, 07:48 PM
I have two questions:

1) Why didn't you put this in the language forum?

2) Why didn't Cliche move it to the language forum? Oh wait, Cliche is more worthless as a mod than Zok is as an admin.
Jerry
08-15-2009, 10:26 PM
I don fucked up