If I wasn't a grammar nazi...

[jackthepumpkinhead]

Maybe the use of "was" as in the thread title wouldn't annoy me so much!

Lately I've been really noticing that apparently the majority of the population these days doesn't understand the conditional tense.

To my ears it sounds almost as bad as saying "you was" for the past tense, or "youse" as the plural form of you.

So basically if you don't get what I'm ranting about... "I was" is strictly past tense, e.g. "I was overweight in my thirties."

The conditional is "I were" e.g. "If I were rich, I would buy an Aston Martin."


Do other people notice this?  

[The Man who was Thursday]

It's the subjunctive mood.  

[applecyder]

People would understand the subjunctive better if the verb changed, like in romance languages. There is a different form of the verb so people remember to use the appropriate one.  

[x-Sadistic_Angel-x]

A lot of people say 'If I was,'
It's integrated itself into English language, like so many other grammatical fractures.  

[Aubrey Nicole]

I definitely clicked the title of this thread, wondering if maybe I was wrong and "If I was" was actually correct.
Anyway, I am happy to discover that I haven't been wrong all these years, and that you were just using that title to draw attention.  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

I'll admit I'm guilty of doing that myself. I learned "I were" as a child, but didn't know if it was correct or not. Since I now know it is, I must make the effort to correct my speech.

 

[Drudra]

The subjunctive tense has been fading from the English language for the past few centuries. I'm sure it will disapear completely within the next few centuries. At least in America.  

[sdfghjklsdfghjskldfghjkls]

Were Americans not lazy, you would have nothing about which to rant.  

[farfromsight06]

Most people just don't care because its the internet.  

[The Man who was Thursday]

Drudra

The subjunctive tense has been fading from the English language for the past few centuries. I'm sure it will disapear completely within the next few centuries. At least in America.

Slight correction; it's a mood, not a tense.  

[MadnessFreak]

Rather true, right there.  

[jackthepumpkinhead]

farfromsight06

Most people just don't care because its the internet.

I'm not talking about seeing it on the internet, or in everyday speech - everyone makes mistakes when they're talking out loud, or typing on a casual forum where no one is really that picky.

I'm talking more about that kind of error in more public, practiced, polished contexts, for example advertising, boards, pamphlets and songs. If you're going to spend money producing something you'd think you would at least run it past an editor - and if they did and the editor didn't pick it up that's sad.

For example when people on say, an infomercial, say something like:
"I always wished I was thinner."  

[The Man who was Thursday]

jackthepumpkinhead

farfromsight06

Most people just don't care because its the internet.

I'm not talking about seeing it on the internet, or in everyday speech - everyone makes mistakes when they're talking out loud, or typing on a casual forum where no one is really that picky.

I'm talking more about that kind of error in more public, practiced, polished contexts, for example advertising, boards, pamphlets and songs. If you're going to spend money producing something you'd think you would at least run it past an editor - and if they did and the editor didn't pick it up that's sad.

For example when people on say, an infomercial, say something like:
"I always wished I was thinner."

::cough::

Sorry, I don't really consider ads, especially informercials, "practiced" or "polished".  

[x-Sadistic_Angel-x]

George Bush uses this phrase.
Very often, actually, in his many 'great, memorable presidential speeches'.  

[The_0ther_Account]

I have never said "I was" in my life, and I never will (hopefully).
NOTE: I mean, in the context where it was not proper to say "I was", not like saying "I was going to the store".