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This website, https://celo.org/about - has a statement (screenshot below should it be removed in future)

The statement is "What is money were beautiful?".

This does not make sense to me.

In British English should it not rather read "What is money WAS beautiful?"

TheBlackBenzKid
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1 Answers1

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See "subjunctive"

"What if money were beautiful" relates a hypothetical situation.

"What if money was beautiful" relates a past tense, at some time in the past it was true.

As time passes, the subjunctive is being used less and less, and sometimes it is replaced by the past tense.

GEdgar
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  • Long-established expressions use the subjunctive, e.g. If wishes were horses.... Newly formed expressions tend to use the past tense. Opinions will vary on this, but to my own ear, the past tense now sounds more natural. –  Dec 27 '20 at 20:09