"If I were" is a correct usage of the English past subjunctive, used
to indicate an occurrence the author presupposes to be contrary
to fact. One would use the indicative if the occurrence might be
true.

Thus:

If I were ten years younger, I'd marry her in a heartbeat.

vs.

If I was not going to make it into the office, I would always call in.

In the story in question, the quote is "If I were a petty person, I would..."
(needs a comma after the clause). Since the speaker doesn't believe she
is, and in fact denies it in the next sentence, "if I were" is correct.

Reid Carson


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Maciej Zenczykowski" <maze@druid.if.uj.edu.pl>
To: <Jussi.Nikander@hut.fi>
Cc: "DB Sommer" <sommer@3rdm.net>; <ffml@anifics.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 12:50 PM
Subject: [FFML] Re: [CotS] Burned

If I were

was

I'm quite certain you can say "If I were..."
Then again, I'm not native speaker and it's been five years since I last
studied English...

'If I were' is more proper and 'if I was' was considered bad English until
a few years back (it might still be considered bad English by UK
standards).  As far as I know both are now accepted in the US.  It's just
another example of the English (or rather American) language becoming
simpler (i.e. using 'were' was a sort of special case, whereas 'was' comes
more naturally from a 'simplest grammar rule' point of view).

Cheers,
MaZe.


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