Jane, I think your friend's copy-editor is flat out wrong. In my experience the great majority of publishers and publications specify "were" for the contrafactual ("Howard felt as if he were entering a baronial fiefdom") and "was" for the possible factual ("I can't remember if he was at my birthday party"). If I were (not *was*) you, I'd tell my friend to get a new copy-editor. Dick On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 10:54 AM, Jane Saral <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > A friend is nearing the end of writing a book and writes me: > > I have been going over my manuscript with a fine-toothed comb. I paid a > copy editor to correct the punctuation and usage, and today I subscribed to > the "Chicago Manual of Style" on line, for a 30 day trial. But I have been > finding inconsistencies in the copy editor's changes that the style manual > doesn't exactly answer. Right now I stuck on the use of "was" or "were" > after an "if." I always thought that it was the subjunctive and should be > "if I were," etc. However, the copy editor has changed my "were" every > time. Here's an example of his change: "Every time he drove up the winding > driveway, Howard felt as if he was entering a baronial fiefdom." Do you > have any idea what the current usage is? I'm very confused so if you have a > clue, let me know. > > I too would use the subjunctive (when it's contrary-to-fact). What > should I tell my friend? > > Jane > To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/