Grammar Police! I need help!

[Alicia64]

My grammar education was pathetic. You want to talk "holes??" I'm a sieve when it comes to grammar that I "learned" in ps.

 

Anyhoo, please help me w/ this sentence:

 

If the couple was to walk into their home. . .

 

OR

 

If the couple were to walk into their home. . .

 

And what is the reasoning for the correct way to say it?

 

Also, do you have any easy ways to remember how/when to 's these kind of works:

 

James    car

 

the bussiness   food

 

Mr. Cortez   saddle

 

I'm so bad at this.

 

Thank you!

 

Alley

 

 

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

My grammar education was pathetic. You want to talk "holes??" I'm a sieve when it comes to grammar that I "learned" in ps.

 

Anyhoo, please help me w/ this sentence:

 

If the couple was to walk into their home. . .

 

OR

 

If the couple were to walk into their home. . .

 

And what is the reasoning for the correct way to say it?

 

Also, do you have any easy ways to remember how/when to 's these kind of works:

 

James    car

 

the bussiness   food

 

Mr. Cortez   saddle

 

I'm so bad at this.

 

Thank you!

 

Alley

 

The first one is were, because it's subjunctive mood (the "hypothetical" mood), which is that one funky construction for which you use were for singular subjects.  If you've seen Fiddler on the Roof, it's why Tevye sings "If I were a rich man..."  It sounds odd, and I suspect it will go the way of Thee and Thou....eventually.

 

If I were taller, I would play basketball.

If she were going to take that test today, she would fail.

If the couple were to walk into their home, they'd be surprised by the wolverines.

 

OWL has a better explanation for the 's than I can type here.

[Alicia64]

The first one is were, because it's subjunctive mood (the "hypothetical" mood), which is that one funky construction for which you use were for singular subjects.  If you've seen Fiddler on the Roof, it's why Tevye sings "If I were a rich man..."  It sounds odd, and I suspect it will go the way of Thee and Thou....eventually.

 

If I were taller, I would play basketball.

If she were going to take that test today, she would fail.

If the couple were to walk into their home, they'd be surprised by the wolverines.

 

OWL has a better explanation for the 's than I can type here.

 

Okay. That's just creepy. I just saw Fiddler!!!

 

Thank you for the great help!

 

Alley

[Violet Crown]

The general rule with 'if' is that a counterfactual takes the subjunctive.

 

If the man was home, then he was watching tv. (indicative)

If the man were home, he would have been struck by lightning. (subjunctive)

 

With a plural subject, however, there's no difference in the form:

 

If the gargoyles were late, then they were punished justly. (indicative)

If the gargoyles were late, they would be cast into the volcano. (subjunctive)

 

Now your sentence is clearly setting up a counterfactual (here, I'll finish it for you):

 

If the couple was/were to walk into their home, they would meet Rasputin face to face.

 

By the traditional rules, then, it should be "were," because of both the plural subject and the counterfactual.

 

But there's a little extra confusion here because in American English, "the couple" can be regarded as a singular or plural subject. You've used 'their' later in the sentence, but it's common in colloquial English to treat an ambiguously numbered subject as singular in one place and plural in another.

 

Further, the subjunctive, much as I love it, is fast disappearing from English. So it's quite defensible to use the indicative wherever the grammar police might insist on the subjunctive.

 

Putting these last two points together, there's nothing at all wrong with "If the couple was to walk into their home, they would meet Rasputin face to face." And I doubt even the most fastidious grammar puritan here would actually notice the "was" in normal conversation.

 

ETA: Points to ThatHomeschoolDad for wolverines.