Americans’ Grammar Is Deteriorating, But Let’s Keep Things in Perspective

The guy who wrote the meme here is referring to something called the subjunctive mood, used mainly to state a contrary-to-fact conditional.  He’s not in LA, therefore we say, “If I were in LA,” not “If I was in LA.”  Similarly, I would say, “If I were president,” rather than “If I was president,” because I’m not president.

Having said this, the proper use of the subjective mood has almost completely disappeared from English; news commentators butcher this far more frequently than they get it right.  I’m not happy about this, but getting frustrated with the degradation of our language seems silly, when the United States is turning into an authoritarian state, and our planet is on fire.

 

Tagged with: