Is it now acceptable to say 'If I was...'?

[MinnieMummy]

DD chose a book from the library yesterday; I think it's called 'Silly Suzy Goose'. On nearly every page the goose says 'If I were a...[insert animal name]' and it was driving me mad as I read it to DD - has this become acceptable now??!! And if so, grrrrr...

Isn't the book right?

The book's right.

If I were. Conditional tense.

Gaaahh, my mistake (bloody typical in pedants' corner), the book says 'If I was'. I say it should be 'If I were'. Glad you agree!

Midge Ure thought it was OK.

Not sure he's a world authority on syntax though.

Is it, if I were or was a rich man?

We LOVE Silly Suzy Goose

Your thread title made me sing "If I was a rich man, didle deedle deedle didle deedle didle deedle dum"

If I were.

It's the conditional mood, isn't it, Spidermama? Let's not be half-hearted about our pedantry, now...

"If I were a carpenter ....."

'Were' is correct for the subjunctive mood. People generally don't say, "If I was you". (Do they?)

Now here's a bit of juicy pedantry to get into. IMHO, "were" is indeed the subjunctive, but in that case you'd say "Were I a carpenter". When you introduce the "if", it's the conditional, and then it can be either- people use "were" if they are proposing something unlikely or impossible ("like "if I were you"- there's no point saying "if I was you" as I never could be), but "was" if it's something genuinely possible- "Were you at home yesterday when the parcel arrived?"... "If I was, I didn't hear the doorbell."

This is interesting, prism. Am I understanding you correctly when you say that 'Were I a carpenter' is classed as subjunctive, but 'If I were a carpenter' is conditional, because of the use of 'if'?

Thank you for making my brain work.

Well yes, that's what I think- my understanding is that the conditional mood always involves "if", in English. However looking it up just now on Wikipedia it would appear that according to some other people, "if I were" is a conditional form of the subjunctive. "Were I a carpenter" is definitely subjunctive- I'll stick my neck out and say that. I think maybe the conditional mood has gone out of fashion a bit since I learned grammar in the mid- 20th century, and it's all a bit more complicated now, like electricity bills and the packaging on simple everyday items...

Yes, I checked Wikipedia also and discovered the terms for the two kinds of conditional for which you gave examples: the hypothetical and the factual.

I think the factual conditional may be in use for electricity bills: If you don't pay, we'll cut you off. Unfortunately, I'm not sure since mine is in Cantonese.