Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
"as if he is crazy" vs "as if he was crazy"
Hello,
I had an English test at school today. There were some multiple choice questions of tenses in which we had to choose the correct answer. There was a sentence:
"He speaks as if he ___ crazy."
1) Was
2) Is
3) Will be
4) Were
I had chosen my answer "Is" but my answer was considered wrong; while I think that three of the given options could be correct answers. Teacher told me that "was" was the correct answer.
But if we look at this:
He speaks as if he were crazy. (subjunctive past tense to express a hypothetical situation in present time)
He speaks as if he is crazy. (indicative present tense to express a real situation in present time)
Aren't both also correct?
I had an English test at school today. There were some multiple choice questions of tenses in which we had to choose the correct answer. There was a sentence:
"He speaks as if he ___ crazy."
1) Was
2) Is
3) Will be
4) Were
I had chosen my answer "Is" but my answer was considered wrong; while I think that three of the given options could be correct answers. Teacher told me that "was" was the correct answer.
But if we look at this:
He speaks as if he were crazy. (subjunctive past tense to express a hypothetical situation in present time)
He speaks as if he is crazy. (indicative present tense to express a real situation in present time)
Aren't both also correct?
Top answer
I agree with you. I don't know why your teacher said that 'was' was the correct answer given that it should have been 'were'. (was is often used instead of were though)
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I agree with you. I don't know why your teacher said that 'was' was the correct answer given that it should have been 'were'. (was is often used instead of were though)
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