'If I was' - is this incorrect?

[Hamishbear]

'If I was' - am I correct in thinking this should always be 'If I were'?

So therefore Midge Ure is incorrect in calling his song 'If I was' it should have been 'if I were'? That will date me :)

Just discussing with someone who tells me I am incorrect?

If I were... there can be no other way (that's right, anyway... ;-) ).

riverboat
Yes, that's quite obvious.

It gets interestingly complicated. See:

www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-subjunctive.htm

The Midge sure song is talking about things that might happen in the future, but he can’t be sure that they will - this scenario requires the subjunctive tense.

Therefore ‘if I were’ is grammatically correct.

For example, Midge sings
“If I was a sailor, seven oceans I'd sail to her”

But it should be
“If I were a sailor, seven oceans I'd sail to her”

Other comments talk about the conditional tense; this is generally when you use ‘would’ or ‘could’. Note that it is used in the lyric above ie. ‘I would sail to her’. The act of sailing being conditional on Midge Ure becoming a sailor.

The subjunctive tense is often used with the conditional tense.

• If I were to win the lottery I would jet off to the Bahamas.
• I would tell her if I were you
• I could climb that mountain if I were fitter

The example "If I was being rude, then I apologise" is using ‘was’ in the past tense. This is an action which has occurred and is completed. It’s a completely different scenario to what Midge Ure is singing about.

Just as a by the way, Beyoncé uses the correct tense in her song ‘If I were a boy’.

If I were a boy
I think I could understand
How it feels to love a girl
I swear I'd be a better man

Why and how did you find a 10 year old thread just to tell us this @Suvvie?!

@chandellina

Weirdly I was just thinking of this this morning, and it was also the Midge Ure song that drew my attention to it back in the day. No one uses it though.

I do. I grimaced at that song when it came out and still do.

Oh good grief. Zombie alert.

On the basis of scrutinising the lyrics in songs...

I'm pretty sure that Nellie the Elephant didn't "pack her trunk" nor "say goodbye to the circus".

I think we're just being fed a pack of lies by successive Governments,

I know this is the most zombified of threads, but...

It's the subjunctive mood, not tense. Tense refers to time (when the action of the verb occurs in time relative to the time of speaking/writing). Mood refers to to whether the sentence or clause is stating something that has happened, is happening, will happen, etc. (indicative), ordering something to happen, etc. (imperative), questioning (interrogative), stating something that depends on another clause (conditional) or expressing a wish, demand, doubt or hypothetical situation (subjunctive).

@lagartija

It should be were but was is also now accepted usage.

Only accepted by the uneducated, the same people who can't be bothered to use there and their correctly, 'have' instead of 'of', the list of dumbing down is huge.

Just noticed that date!

Yes, this topic was explored extensively by many newspapers at the time that the song was released, with all sorts of academics being asked their opinion and unanimously agreeing that it should be “if I were”. As I recall, Elvis Costello was embroiled in a similar debate when he released “Oliver’s Army” some time earlier! (Oliver’s Army is on [their] way”)