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ENGLISCH/909: Questions to Mrs Gobbledygook (189) "was" or "were" (SB)


QUESTIONS   TO   MRS   GOBBLEDYGOOK


A matter of politeness



Dear Mrs Gobbledygook

I would like to know the difference between the following two conditional sentences:

"If I was there I would have told him the truth."

or

"If I were there I would have told him the truth."

I know both of them are correct, but in what situation or context would you use either of them?

Yours

Lars P. (Copenhagen, Denmark)


*


Dear Mr P

First I have to comment on those two sentences that they don't seem to fit the pattern. It is quite unusual to mix the tenses in that way. We would be more likely to say, if we began a sentence with "if I was there":

"If I was there I would tell him the truth."

rather than

"If I was there I would have told him the truth."

And if we had "would have told him" a second part of a sentence, than we would probably begin the sentence with "If I had been there".

So more likely to be:

"If I was there I would tell him the truth."

Not that probable but just about possible:

"If I had been there I would have told him."

But your own sentence - "If I was there I would have told him." - is impossible, it's too late. Which is why it's not very usual to mix up the parts in the way that it is done in this example.

But let's go back to your question of whether you use "was" or "were" in this context in the if-clause and why you use one and not the other...

Let me illustrate this using perhaps a bit clearer example:

"If it was true I've known."

This one is correct but it sounds very strict and straight forward. Sometimes in these circumstances we can choose "were":

"If it were true I've known."

Because it makes us sound even less certain, more hypothetical, more tentative, a lot more polite and that means a lot more English.

Yours

Miranda Gobbledygook


6 February 2012