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My question pertains to the following:

Mother knocked on the door because she said the bell might wake up the baby if he was asleep.

Should was be changed to were here? Thanks!

The Editor
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    First of all, the subjunctive mood can be either were or was. However, this sounds much more like the regular backshifting of reported speech involving a conditional to me. (She said, "If you knock on the door, you might wake up the baby if he is* asleep."*) – Jason Bassford Apr 28 '20 at 21:42
  • No: "was" is fine. It's simply a past tense form. Please understand that English does not have a subjunctive mood. The "were" is called 'irrealis' mood, not subjunctive. – BillJ Apr 29 '20 at 05:58
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    @JasonBassford Would this mean that you'd go with was here? Thanks! – The Editor Apr 29 '20 at 19:23
  • @BillJ It seems to me that English does have the subjunctive mood; it's just rare. See, for example, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/subjunctive_mood. – The Editor Apr 29 '20 at 19:24
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    @TheEditor Since I don't believe it's in the subjunctive, then, yes. I would use was. If I thought it were ;) in the subjunctive, I would personally use were. – Jason Bassford Apr 29 '20 at 20:17
  • @TheEditor Incidentally, saying that "the subjunctive mood doesn't exist because it's not called that, it's called irrealis," is just sidestepping the question. That kind of criticism of naming isn't helpful when it's obvious what's being referred to anyway. In short, you say potato and I say potato. (Which makes much more sense when you actually hear it …) So, whether you want to think of it as subjunctive or irrealis, the point is I don't think that's the mood in the specific example sentence. ;) – Jason Bassford Apr 29 '20 at 20:23
  • Thanks for the answer! – The Editor Apr 30 '20 at 01:09

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