Universite d’antananarivo ecole normale superieure

“Was” and “Were” in second conditional sentences

Generally, we use “were” as the past simple of the verb “to be” for the first and the third person singular to express subjunctive mood.

Eg: -If I were President, I would lower taxes.
-If Jack were your husband, you would suffer.
Nonetheless, during our research, we discovered that the use of “was” instead of “were” in conditional sentences type 2 is also acceptable like what we found in Tom Hutchinson’s book, English For life (Pre-intermediate), published in 2007. However, the following books mention that you must use the subjunctive form “were” if you want to speak and write correctly:

• 
  The Gregg Reference Manual
  

• 
  The Associated Press Stylebook 2011
  

• 
  The Chicago Manual of Style 16^th Edition
  
• 
  Garner’s Modern American Usage
  

• 
  The American Heritage College Dictionary 4^th Edition
  

Therefore, we decided to follow their rules to avoid confusion in students’ mind while using the verb “to be” in second conditional sentences.