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I know that scenarios contrary to fact should be in the subjunctive mood, but ones that we are uncertain of can use past tense. For example, "If I were you..." vs "I don't know if I was right." But what about the sentence "I didn't think it __ possible," assuming whatever is talked about did happen? It's not contrary to fact, but the speaker thought it was contrary to fact at the time. Both "was" and "were" sound right to me.

Alexander Wu
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  • Duplicate of https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/536709? – Rosie F Feb 01 '21 at 07:18
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    Google ngrams show a faint historic trace for 'think it were possible', no doubt because of the 'not a definite fact' nudge vaguely towards the be-subjunctive ('if it were possible'). But no, one to avoid. Use 'didn't think it was possible'. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 26 '23 at 12:34

2 Answers2

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I didn’t think it was possible. The ‘were possible’ is occasionally used to make the speaker sound academic. In fact it not only sounds wrong it is wrong. Look at that! Crikey, I didn’t think that was possible.

MobyDoc
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"I didn't think it __ possible," assuming whatever is talked about did happen?

what if it didn't happen? doesn't seem to make a difference. would still be "I didn't think it was possible, and it wasn't."

user84614
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