The subjunctive mood in the English language has somewhat fallen out of favour with its native speakers, but still remains a difficult point to master with learners of English.
The confusion between if I was and if I were has led to native speakers completely omitting the subjunctive, and it can certainly be argued that it is no longer necessary.
Whereas many other languages still retain the subjunctive (and use it regularly to indicate emotions, hypothetical situations, etc.
), the difference between it and the indicative has become so minuscule that it is almost completely overlooked at every opportunity.
Bearing this trend in mind, is it really necessary to teach the English subjunctive mood to none-native speakers? The answer lies in linguistic register.
Hypothetically, if one were to teach English as a foreign language (EFL) at a conversational level (as opposed to business or advanced academic level), the exclusion of the subjunctive as a grammatical tool is superfluous.
Conversational English is something which has evolved from, as Stephen Fry called it in an interview with Jonathan Ross, the mongrel mouthful which we speak with every sentence.
It would be extremely prissy and potentially quite frustrating were one native speaker to correct another, saying "I'm sorry, but I think you'll find it's 'if I were rich.
'" Conversationally, therefore, students need neither master nor even learn this alien, and dare I say out-dated, grammatical mood.
The meaning of their sentence will be understood without confusion, and both parties involved in the conversation can continue chatting in the comfort of the knowledge that there is one less verb conjugation to remember.
Does formal English require comprehensive use of the subjunctive mood, and can sophisticated register exist without it? I would like to put the idea out there that, save for linguists and teachers and grammarphiles, incorrect usage of the subjunctive mood would only be corrected in the rarest of occasions.
I'm hard pushed to believe that in a world which is advancing at an exponential rate, EFL language teachers and their students should shoe-horn in compulsory classes for using, or even recognising, the subjunctive.
Omission of the subjunctive is no longer wrong.
Interestingly, and rather paradoxically it seems, using it is hardly considered right any more.
As one gradually loses interest in it, it will eventually fall behind the sofa of English linguistics to nestle snugly with thee and thou.
The English language has simply evolved to safely navigate itself around the dangerous shores of the subjunctive, and the teaching of EFL must evolve with it.