I’m sorry to say that you got it wrong that the first-person personal pronoun “I” should always be followed by the past-tense form of the verb “be,” which is “were.” Your elementary-school English teacher was misinformed and evidently confused about that usage, and the fact that you find it more comfortable to use the past-tense form “was” tells me that you instinctively knew better than your English teacher. I must also hasten to add that the use of “was” in the movie title
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (and most likely also in that interview with that baseball player) is grammatically correct, and that the use of “were” in the film title
If I Were A King (and most likely also by that American reporter) is also grammatically correct.
The user of “was” and the user of “were” you cited differed in their choice of the form of the verb “be” not because they had a choice but because their statements are actually in two different moods. The “was” user in your example was using the verb “be” in the
indicative mood, while the “were” user in your example was using the verb “be” in the
subjunctive mood. Indeed, your elementary-school teacher obviously was blind to this distinction between the two usages.
To clearly understand the distinction between these usages, let’s first do a quick review of the three moods of verbs in English. By
mood, of course, we mean that aspect of the verb that expresses the state of mind or attitude of the speaker toward what he or she is saying. The three moods are the
indicative mood, the
imperative mood, and the
subjunctive mood. As I’m sure you already know, both the indicative and the imperative moods deal with actions or states in factual or real-world situations. The subjunctive mood, on the other hand, deals with actions or states only as possible, contingent, or conditional outcomes of a want, wish, preference, or uncertainty expressed by the speaker.
The most familiar and most commonly used of the three moods is, of course, the
indicative mood. It conveys the idea that an act or condition is (1) an objective fact, (2) an opinion, or (3) the subject of a question. Statements in the indicative mood seek to give the impression that the speaker is talking about real-world situations in a straightforward, truthful manner. And from a usage standpoint, indicative statements have one very reassuring aspect: their operative verbs take their normal inflections in all the tenses and typically obey the subject-verb agreement rule at all times.
Look at these examples of indicative sentences—
Stating an objective fact: “The Philippines is the world’s second largest labor exporter, next only to Mexico.”
Stating an opinion: “Our client seems uninterested in the survey findings.”
Posing a question: “Who used my computer this morning?”
The imperative mood, on the other hand, denotes that all-too-familiar attitude of a speaker who (1) demands or orders a particular action, (2) makes a request or suggestion, (3) gives advice, or (4) states a prohibition. We all know that this mood uses the base form of the operative verb (the verb’s infinitive form without the “to”), and is most often used in second-person, present-tense sentences that use an elliptical subject or the unstated second-person pronoun “you.
Examples of imperative statements—
Demanding a particular action: “Stop that car!”
Making a request or suggestion: “Please take your seats.” “Join me this afternoon to review the sales report.”
Giving advice: “Study your lessons well to pass tomorrow’s test.”
Stating a prohibition: “Don’t enter this one-way street.”
The subjunctive mood has a much more varied and complex grammatical repertoire than the indicative and imperative moods. It can take several forms to perform the following tasks: (1) indicate a possibility (2) express a desire or wishful attitude, (3) express insistence on a particular action, (4) express doubt about a certain outcome, (5) describe an unreal situation or an idea contrary to fact, or (6) express a request or suggestion.
Now let’s go to the heart of the confusion that usually attends the usage of the subjunctive mood.
First, in the subjunctive third-person singular, the verb drops the expected “-s” (or “-es”) at its tail end and takes its base form instead, as the verb “heed” does in this sentence: “It is essential
that she heed the people’s clamor.” We don’t say “It is essential
that she heeds the people’s clamor.” As a general rule for subjunctive “that”-clauses, their operative verbs don’t change form at all regardless of what number or person the subject takes: “It is imperative
that he submit himself to the jurisdiction of this court.” (We don’t say “It is imperative
that he submits himself to the jurisdiction of this court.”) To know this basic behavior of verbs in the subjunctive mood could eliminate much of the confusion when we deal with subjunctive-mood sentences.
Second, and this behavior of the subjunctive directly answers the question you raised about its usage, the verb “be” exhibits deviant behavior in subjunctive “if”-clauses. While both regular and irregular verbs in the subjunctive take the same form as their indicative past-tense forms (“worked,” “found,” “caught,” “saw,” and so on), the verb “be” exhibits totally maverick behavior. It sticks to the past-tense subjunctive form “were” all throughout, regardless of the person and number of its subject: “She acts
as if she were a member of royalty.” “They avoided the man
as if he were a leper.” “The people behaved
as if their future were a big joke.” In such constructions, “were” deceptively looks and behaves as if it were consistently plural and in the past tense; it’s no wonder that many people—and, unfortunately, your elementary-school English teacher was evidently one of them—find it so difficult to understand the subjunctive form and how it works.
Third, the verb “be” consistently takes the subjunctive past tense in “that”-clauses that follow main clauses expressing a wish or desire: “I
wish (that) she were more intelligent.” “I
wish (that) I were the committee chairman.” “How I
wish (that) you were here right now!” Such subjunctive constructions indicate that the wish or desired outcome is neither a present reality nor a future certainty.
And fourth, the subjunctive can also be used to denote a hypothetical state or outcome given a certain condition that is unreal or contrary to fact. Such conditions will often be indicated by the word “if” or “wish”: “
If the Earth were flat, Magellan’s naval expedition wouldn’t have circumnavigated the globe.” (This is the same subjunctive form as Frank Lloyd’s title for his film,
If I Were King; the statement is in the subjunctive because the person who said it wasn’t the king.) “How I
wish (that) I were here when she said that! I would have told her that she was a liar.” Without “if,” such constructions can sometimes take an inverted syntax: “
Were she the CEO, our management wouldn’t be pursuing this erroneous course.”
This has been a rather long explanation, but I’m afraid there’s no simpler way to make the subjective understandable except to discuss it from the total perspective of the three moods of verbs in English. Let me caution you, though, that this is actually just a very basic explanation of the subjunctive. For a more thorough and comprehensive discussion, I suggest you read Chapters 77-81 of my book
Give Your English the Winning Edge. Aside from giving you a much deeper look into the subjunctive and its uses, it also discusses alternatives for avoiding the use of the subjunctive altogether.
