kommt auf den Rest des Satzes an

If ... were/was better, she'd be working in Rome now. - were = formal' was = colloquial.

However: If ... was better, it must have had to do with her having lived in Italy for 6 months.

Eine ganz andere Bedeutung.

Danke für die Aufklärung. Kann man dann auch sagen: "If I was you..." and "If I were you..." und wenn ja, in welchem Zusammenhang verwendet man die jeweilige Form?

Kann man schon, klar. Auch hier gilt: were = formal; was = colloquial. If I were/was you, I wouldn't do that. (e.g.)

Ich habe noch nie jemanden sagen gehört "If I was you". Klingt irgendwie falsch.

Ich denke an den Song von Nickelback. "If today was your last day". Er hätte auch singen können "If today were your last day." Irgendwie unlogisch, die englische Sprache.

Herzlichen Dank für die Nachhilfe.

If I were a rich man,
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.

I am not a linguist, therefore I cannot explain this properly, but dude is entirely wrong. It has absolutely nothing to do with colloqial/formal. It is called subjunctive (German - konjuntiv) and means that it is a hypothetical situation "were", that isn't actually true, versus a fact "was", that is true.
Please google subjunctive+were for more detailed and correct info.

I looked it up in the internet. Both of you are right.

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-subj...

It is a subjunctive, but there is a distinction between formal (were) and informal use. But we normally do not say "If I was you", even in familiar conversation (cf. last paragraph).

excuse me, witch, but you're the one who's wrong. If someone says "If I was you," it has nothing to do with that person factually being the other person because, for one thing, that's impossible to do. I can only be me, and everyone else can only be themselves. "If I was you" has the exact same meaning as "If I were you."

Also, gnu, please look at the 11.7 million hits indicated for "If I was you" and what they mean before claiming that "we normally don't say that, even in familiar conversation." I, for one, hear it all the time.
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclie...

Just as a data point: I don't think I say "if I was you," only "if I were you." I'm not sure why, but I suspect it's not because I speak formal English all the time. :-)

So are you saying you've never heard people say "if I was you" then?

I'm not claiming that I say it (frequently), either, only that I hear it a lot.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-03-20...
'If I was a judge, I would have suspended my license'

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Pussycat+Dolls/_...
The Pussycat Dolls – If I Was A Man (Introducing Jessica Sutta) (3:31)

http://jetpress.org/v19/kenyon.htm
Would You Still Love Me If I Was A Robot?

All subjunctives, I might point out.

Support dude, here: I hear "if I was you" quite often. Also "if I was her/him/the President/the man on the moon" too.

No. 5 mentions "If I were a rich man." I'll see your Zero Mostel and raise you one Gwen Stefani singing "if I was a rich girl."

All that is just to say that people really, really often use the simple past instead of the subjunctive in spoken English. Non-natives should recognize this trend but IMO not try to follow it.

No, dude, that is not what I wrote (or meant). Of course, I've heard people say it. I simply meant that I don't think that I, personally, say "if I was you." It's just a single data point. Now I'm wondering why it is that I don't say it. There must be a reason. I just don't know what it is. Geography, age, upbringing - I plead ignorance in the matter of causality, your honor. ;-)

OK, so where are we on this?

All three of us hear it. Dude isn't claiming that he says it (frequently). Katydid advises non-native speakers to avoid it. I don't think I say it at all.

3 - zip: Don't say it!

for English learners, I'd say be aware that people do say it, know what it means, but don't say it yourself (unless you've really got the hang of slang/colloquialisms). :-)

Dude, for me it's not even then. Non-native speakers are held to a higher standard of linguistic correctness, especially by well-meaning native speakers who want to help them improve. Even if you've got your colloquialisms down pat, try to avoid incorrect usage, I guess is what I'm saying.

I don't say "if I was you" either, SD3. I do have issues with the past subjunctive sometimes, though. I can't quite wrap my head around whether a sentence like this is actaully correct: "when you asked him if he were coming to the party, what did he say?" I think I'd be more likely to say "if he was coming to the party" instead.

I use 'if' with (it?) 'was' sometimes casually, but not 'if I was you,' which sounds worse to me somehow. So make that 4 to zip. (-:

I believe the indicative ('was') is correct when 'if' means 'whether,' as in 'asked him if he was coming to the party,' but I know what you mean, once you start thinking about it, it's hard to think about it. But contrast that with a contrary-to-fact situation, which does take the subjunctive: If he were coming to the party, he could give you a ride home, but since he isn't ...

Now that this topic has come up again, let me make my usual remark that there is also an AE/BE difference here.

Michael Swan:

"We often use "were" instead of "was" after "if". This is common in both formal and informal styles. In a formal style it is much more common than "was", and many people consider it more correct, especially in American English."

The use of "were" is (subjunctive) has perhaps more or less disappeared from the language. It has been more or less completely replaced indicative tenses, like the past simple in second conditionals.

The use of "were" (subjunctive) has perhaps more or less disappeared from the language. It has been more or less completely replaced by indicative tenses, like the past simple in second conditionals. May be there is also a difference in use for British and American English.

Even in BE, as Swan points out, many people still use the subjunctive and consider it more correct in many contexts (if not quite as many as AE), especially in more serious or formal writing.

To say it has all but disappeared from the language is a misleading overstatement for both BE and (especially) AE.

Gnu, what? Are you quoting someone else or what? I ask because your most recent statement is at odds with your previous question.

You may be thinking of the originally separate subjunctive forms having been replaced by the indicative ones, not the whole mood being swallowed by the indicative.

Non-native speakers are held to a higher standard of linguistic correctness, especially by well-meaning native speakers who want to help them improve. Even if you've got your colloquialisms down pat, try to avoid incorrect usage, I guess is what I'm saying. (From #15)

I agree with Katydid. It's incorrect usage, not just colloqial English. As discernible forms of the subjunctive are so rare (limited to 'to be' and 3rd person singular in other verbs) I guess many people simply don't pay attention. For me, too, 'if it was' sounds like something I might actually say in a casual conversation but 'if I was you' doesn't.

Dude, your 117 million (yes, not 11.7m!) G.-hits from #8 boil down to 634, all the others are repetitions. Among those that remain a majority belongs to one of the following categories:
a) blogs and forums with memorable sentences such as 'If I was you I will tell him...';
b) song lyrics;
c) and, most notably, pages which don't use the phrase but quote it (for the purpose of pointing out that it is incorrect) (BBC, grammar pages, and the like).

I'm not happy with Michael Swan's statement quoted by Londoner (#17). It makes it appear as if it were a matter of style or personal predilection to use 'were' instead of 'was' and not a question of expressing yourself in the correct mood (not tense). I agree with Katydid (#21) and others who say that the mood is alive and well (although I'd like to point out that it is historically wrong to say that the originally separate subjunctive forms have 'been replaced by the indicative ones' -- rather, they (or most of them) have become superficially the same; compare German Konjunktiv II and past tense in many verbs).

Thanks, hm--us, for pointing out that there can be an indicative after 'if' when 'if' means 'whether'. This is not necessarily a past tense but can be any other indicative. Only past tense indicative can be confused with the subjunctive, so the question 'which is correct, if he were coming or if he was coming?' arises only then. The use of a subjunctive ('when you asked him if he were coming') in such cases would be hypercorrect (i.e. incorrect). Such qualms befall only people who are painfully aware of the fact that the subjunctive exists in English.

There are two more cases, however, if I'm not mistaken.
The first is the first conditional as opposed to the second: If you are right vs. If you were right (you may be right or not/you may be right but I doubt it). Here, the indicative form has indeed replaced the subjunctive (compare: if this be folly...).
The second is a true past tense. Dude mentioned it in #1 but I'm afraid his point didn't come across. You usually need a time marker or enough contextual evidence in order to determine if the verb form is a past tense (which refers to the past) or a subjunctive which looks like a past tense (but which refers to an improbable or contrary-to-facts condition in the present):
If he was so famous why did nobody bother to write his life?
If her command of Italian was better (than mine) (when we vistited Rome together three years ago) it was surely due to the fact that she had spent some time in Italy before.

This also applies to verbs unlike 'to be' which have identical forms in past tense and subjunctive:
If you suffered from tuberculosis, you would not sit here talking to me (subjunctive; there is a possibility that you suffer from tuberculosis but I doubt it; in spite of the seemingly past-tense verb this sentence refers to a present condition);
If you suffered from tuberculosis before or several decades after 1900 you would helplessly wander from doctor to doctor, clinic to clinic, and unerringly die within just months or a year (true past tense indicated by a time reference; the 'would' in the main clause makes the whole sentence look dangerously similar to a conditional, but there is no conditional. The 'would' is just the 'habitual would' of 'we would have an early breakfast and would then resort to the beach' etcetera.