I also automatically say "If I were", but only because I was taught to say it. However, the subjunctive is definitely on its way out and I know many people who say "If I was". I hear it every day.
Try googling it. I got around 77 thousand hits. Could all these people be wrong or uneducated?
For accuracy's sake, "if I were you" yields four times as many results.
And just a quick poll question, if I may: do you say "between you and me" or "between you and I" and why?
by the way, to say make the assertion that it's prefectly okay to use the incorrect form because it is how people talk colloquially is the same as saying that it is okay to think that 2+2 =5 and that the sun revolves around the earth because most people think so colloquially. most people are incorrect about a lot of things and precribing remedies to language use is just as a sensible as prescribing remedies to incorrect thoughts and actions. although...the world is becoming increasingly relative and arbitrary as modern science has revealed, so perhaps it doesn't make sense to fix anything. entropy loves company, and as long as the monkey next you gets the point of what you are saying, then grunting and snorting might as well be the next development in linguistic evolution, aye?
on a very final note, "between you and I" was invented by wealthy yet uneducated southern californians. at least this is where i've heard it used for the first time...by my ex-girlfriend! which also suggests why she is my ex-girlfriend and not my girlfriend...mmm?
snorting, grunting, and degenerating my ways thru da world around I, lol, brb...ect.
cya.
Ved, read my comments....
Or, do you say IT'S ME or IT IS I :)
I say "between you and me" ans "it is me"
"Between you and I" is a hypercorrection. It came about because people were (prescriptively) taught that it was wrong to say things like "it is me". Whoever said it was stigmatized, so they became self-conscious about using the form "me" altogether. The reason? Because an objective form could not be used as the subject in LATIN. How much sense does this make?
Tiffany, I also say "it is me". I only say "it is I" if I need to sound very, very formal.
>>by the way, to say make the assertion that it's prefectly okay to use the incorrect form because it is how people talk colloquially is the same as saying that it is okay to think that 2+2 =5 and that the sun revolves around the earth because most people think so<<
We gar-Dena in geardagum theodcyninga thrym gefrunon.
Do you understand this sentence, Some Guy? Chances are you don't. (Unless you have had training in linguistics). It is English, the way it used to look ten centuries ago.
Why do you think this language has changed so much? Is it because people stuck to old ways or because colloquial forms prevailed?
It is also for this precise reason that Spanish is spoken in Spain now, as opposed to Latin.
Finally, "If I was" is not incorrect. If it were incorrect, it would not be used by native speakers of English. You would never say that a sentence like "I have cat" is correct, would you? It is not, because it breaks the syntactic rules that every one of us knows subconsciously. No native speaker of English will ever say anything like this.
"If I was" is different, however. It is not wrong. It is merely considered by some people to be substandard. To a linguist, this makes a world of difference.
I use 'between you and me' because, first, 'you and me' are not the subject, and people wouldn't say 'between you and I/me' unless they were speaking informally. Hence, 'between you and me' is correct.
To me, "if I was you" doesn't sound substandard; it sounds just plain wrong.
>>To me, "if I was you" doesn't sound substandard; it sounds just plain wrong.<<
Like somebody said above, do you ever get out? Listen to rock or pop music etc. etc.
I would like to add that LINGUISTS DO NOT USE THE WORD -SUBSTANDARD ANYMORE. THEY PREFER THE WORD: NONSTANDARD.
I have never heard 'if I was you' in any rock or pop music. I have only heard it in rap and country, two genres which are not exactly known for their traditional, 'correct' use of words.
Please let's not confuse the terms "incorrect" and "substandard/nonstandard" anymore.
If I may reiterate my point: "I have cat" is incorrect, while "if I was" is not.
I agree with Ved...it never seems to occur to people that, altho language changes over the millennia, language isn't "degrading" every time there's a new change. We'd be speaking in incomprehensible grunts by this point.
My teacher says ''What if God was one of us'' is incorrect :(
Why???
Many thanks for your answer.
Robert Kelley, are you learning English or do you speak it?
Either way, "what if God was one of us" is correct. I don't know why, it just it. How does s/he say it should be?