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viva la

(4,639 posts)
2. Not to be pedantic, but "If I" would take the subjunctive (were going) if it were "contrary to fact"
Thu Jul 15, 2021, 02:47 PM
Jul 2021

"If I were you..."
I am NOT you.

But "I knew if I was going to move to Napa, I'd become a wine connoisseur, and I have!" = That is, if the statement is true, you don't use the subjunctive. I know this is falling away as a kind of weird grammar tick, but it's still used automatically by most of us when we're going to say something that isn't true.

To say, "If I was going to do a coup," means... he WAS going to do a coup.

An unconscious tell.

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