Jane, In looking further at your friend's sentence ("Every time he drove up the winding driveway, Howard felt as if he was/were entering a baronial fiefdom"), I think it may be intended more as a simile than a contrafactual. Better might be: "Every time he drove up the winding driveway, Howard felt like he was entering a baronial fiefdom." The friend could even drop "like": "..he felt he was entering..." I also don't think "fiefdom" is the word your friend wants. A fiefdom is a political entity. It refers to an extent of land under the lord's control, not to a castle. I'd substitute "manor." Dick On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 6:36 PM, Dick Veit <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > 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/