Subjunctive mood: were or was?

Question

Here, I copied a sentence from a book published by Cambridge Press: ''Nusselt number is the ratio of the actual heat transfer to what it would be if there were conduction but no convection.''

This may be a simple question for you. But I confused about the ''were'' in the subordinate clause and supposed it should be was since conduction is in singular form. Could you please explain this issue? Thanks for your comments.

"Were" is OK, though it is 'irrealis' mood, not subjunctive. Irrealis is limited to 1/3 person singular forms (of "be"), as is the case here. You could replace it with the less formal modal preterite "was": "if there was conduction but no convection". — BillJ, Sep 21 '17 at 12:27
Possible duplicate of "Was" and "were", which is correct in this context? Can a mood be established in a terminating clause? // [when to use if I was vs if i were](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/660/when-to-use-if-i-was-vs-if-i-were]. — Edwin Ashworth, Sep 21 '17 at 13:51

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 21 '17 at 11:41

0

This is an example of an "unreal conditional clause".

See:

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/conditional-sentences-was-instead-of-were/

answered Sep 21 '17 at 11:41

ro͢binmckenzie

124
4

The problem with websites like 'Grammarly' is that they get many things wrong. For instance in the link you provided, they say that If I was a rich man, I would make more charitable donations is wrong. But it isn't wrong -- it's fine. The use of the modal preterite "was" is just less formal than irrealis "were", not grammatically incorrect. – BillJ Sep 21 '17 at 13:13

Subjunctive mood: were or was?

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