In my most recent blog post, someone made a comment in the form of "If I was you," and claimed it to be bad grammar practice. I wouldn't normally question that this is bad grammar (as opposed to "If I were you"), considering that I personally have a preference for "If I were you," due to its phonetic harmony.
However, when I think about it, I can only devise reasons why "If I was you" is better:
- "I was going..." as opposed to "I were going..."
- "I was sad," as opposed to "I were sad."
- http://www.gpc.edu/~lawowl/handouts/to-be-conjugation.pdf lists only forms of "I was," and never "I were." I don't know what the proper name of the tense of a phrase beginning with "If" is, though, so "If I [to be]" may have a special conjugation in itself.
Anyways, this is something I must have spent at least 10 minutes pondering now, so if anyone here happens to be an English major, I certainly wouldn't mind your input!
Hiead
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"If I was you" IS bad grammar.
Although "was" is the proper verb form for nouns such as I, he, she, it, etc, after the word "If" or "Suppose" "Wish" or etc it changes the subjunctive form "were" for all of the above, even if it doesn't necessarily sound correct at all times.
"If I were you"
"If that were true"
"If he were here"
"As if it were smaller"
"Wish she were gone"
"Suppose it were true"
As I said, it sounds awful in some forms, but it is technically correct.