Bad mood

One of my major pet peeves is poor grammar--especially on news programs and by people who should know better. The most grating offences to me are phrases such as "If I was President..." "If it was up to me..." If that was the case, then..."

Let's say it together: the proper verb form is were.

Statements of condition, and condition in the past require the subjunctive mood. I frequently have to correct this error in communications from my boss. Unfortunately, when when we review these corrections she challenges the change for the only reason that she thinks it "sounds better" her way. She never heard the word "subjunctive" before and makes it clear she does not care. This drives me batty.

William Saffire has a great column on this topic this week. Writing in his column "On Language," he recently committeed the same error, and opened Sundays missive with "All I can hear is the howling of the werewolves."

To prevent the onset of a bad mood, we should use the subjunctive when expressing a wish, making a suggestion or describing a circumstance that we know just ain’t so. A couple of decades back, I rapped the knuckles of Senator Ted Kennedy for saying, “If I was to make a political decision” in withdrawing his candidacy for president. He replied with amused contrition: “The error you cited I have made before — and I was corrected at the time by my mother.” The senator attached a copy of a 1975 note from Rose Kennedy: “Dear Teddy: Please say, ‘If I were President,’ not ‘If I was President.’ The reason is the old, what used to be known in Latin as ‘condition contrary to fact.’ . . . Love to all, G’ma.”