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“A letter?” repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. “Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He’ll be famous—a legend—I wouldn’t be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future—there will be books written about Harry—every child in our world will know his name!”

Why do we use Past Tense in "if today was known"?

KillingTime
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Кирилл Мир
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    Perhaps Professor McGonagall meant to use a subjunctive (describing a hypothetical situation) ... but pedantically that should be "if today were known". – GEdgar Aug 25 '22 at 10:22
  • I think also that "if today will be known" would also make sense. It matches with "there will be books written". – Maths Barry Aug 25 '22 at 11:46
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    Was is more comfortable and shorter and easier to say than were and it's also grammatical and not pedantic. – John Lawler Aug 25 '22 at 14:55
  • The subjunctive is frequently replaced with the past tense in casual speech. "I'd eat if I was hungry." – Barmar Aug 25 '22 at 22:36
  • @Кирилл Мир Might it be more simple if instead of 'was', she'd said 'if today "were" known as Harry Potter day in the future"? – Robbie Goodwin Sep 01 '22 at 18:24

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