Is it "as if I was" or "as if I were"...well, you want how it was, or where it's heading?

[alfreda89]

Allie was saying "like I was" in the current manuscript.  One of my first readers hates that, even as Allie learns a more gentile form of English.  (Not necessarily accurate for the Regency...this is a fantasy novel, and I don't want to bend over backward making some things understandable to modern readers.)  But if you change "like" to "as if" then suddenly we have the above question.

Here's one person's answer, from English Forums:

moijelesuis:

as if i were... as mentioned in another post, this is the final remnant of the past subjunctive in english. common vernacular usage of "as if i was" shows that this last vestige might also be on its way out of the english language...

(subjunctive is used here because the expression "as if" makes the situation hypothetical, putting in doubt its truth or even its possibility, depending on the case)

Further down, we get to the complication:

Perhaps the best advice is to use WERE for the present and WAS for the past. One great grammarian gives these examples: "She speaks as if she were ashamed" but "She spoke as if she was ashamed." One book used by many American college students simply gives this example: He acted as if he were/was losing his temper. Nowdays, many native speakers use WAS even for the present, e.g., She speaks as if she was ashamed.

The problem here being, most novels are written in past tense, despite Allie's occasional lapse into present (we keep tying to nip this, but she's telling this into my head, you see.) So--do I fight the good fight, and use "as if I were" or use "as if I was"?

And I note that Live Journal will no longer let me hide a portion of the post and then continue outside it.  It is becoming annoying.  That is sad.  I hope I have time to design a web site and blog this summer.

Comments

[tylik.livejournal.com]

I lean heavily in favor of "as if I were", but it partly depends on how civilized Allie has become.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

More civilized than Night Calls, but not as civilized as she will become.

But she's a Sorensson. She doesn't forget how to speak Woodsy when needed.

[tylik.livejournal.com]

Well, then, the question is who she's speaking to, isn't it?

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I'll have to double-check, but I think it's all internal thoughts.