Is it "Whether this was an animal, an event or a process I didn’t know,"

or is it "Whether this were an animal, an event or a process I didn’t know?"

Catty

In all the cases the subject is singular (this refers to one of the choices), so the correct verb is was.


(Methos slinks off grumbling about Maiku getting all the attention)


By the way, I would put a comma before the or, although some would argue that it is acceptable to leave it out.

Methos, I am going to stop giving my attention to maiku and give it to you from now on. It's your turn!

Thank you for the information. I shall take it to heart; I may even embroider it on a small piece of white linen, frame it and hang it above my bed. You are a doll!

Catty + =

quote:

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Originally posted by methos5000:
In all the cases the subject is singular (_this_ refers to _one_ of the choices), so the correct verb is _was_.

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Catty, my own dear one: do not listen to Methos here, for he knows not whereof he speaks (nor does he strike me as being anything like a "doll.") But let that go.

By accident, apparently, it appears that he's given the correct verb form in answer to your question as was rather than were. But it isn't really the singular vs. the plural that's involved in your question, it's the choice between the indicative and the subjunctive forms. Thus:

If that was a bear, I'll be hornswoggled. It sure looked like an Eskimo to me.

In this case, the indicative is called for, because the speaker doesn't want exactly to deny that the sighting was of a bear, only to assert that in his opinion it wasn't.

The subjunctive mood would be called for if the speaker wanted to say that the idea that a bear had been sighted was contrary to fact:

If that were a bear, instead of just an Eskimo, Jack, I'd have been running for my life.

Note that a clause beginning with "if" would be, for your example, semantically equivalent to your "whether." Elsewhere, they might be quite different, and normally a clause begining "whether (or not)" would never command the subjunctive form. But it might by some speakers be felt to do so where the "whether" is (quite mistakenly) taken as equivalent to an "if," possibly counterfactual.

There is a lot of confusion about the proper use of the subjunctive in contrary-to-fact "if" clauses. Some years ago, a phone caller asked me, "I was wondering if your wife were there." Without missing a beat, I answered, "No she aren't."

Trust me on this, catty. If you still have doubts about the case, ask me again.

[This message was edited by maiku on 03-31-03 at 08:49 PM.]

I'll yield to Maiku.

Thank you both, for the work that went into this. I appreciate you both no end.

Catty

Methos

quote:

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By the way, I would put a comma before the or, although some would argue that it is acceptable to leave it out.

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British English usage, as I learnt it years ago, is that the phrase could be written '... an animal or an event or a process ...', but this is clumsy, so a comma is used to replace all but the last 'or'.

Similarly, 'an animal and an event and a process' would be 'an animal, an event and a process'. That's the basic rule I was taught, though a comma could be inserted after 'event' judiciously to add emphasis.

On the other hand, if you go to this site and scroll down to 'commas', it rather contradicts my understanding. Maybe it's a judgement call, but beware ambiguities such as they mention in the 'To my parents ...' quotation!

Ewood - I tried to indicate that either way finds its supporters. For example, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White says that a comma should be used between items (including before and or or) in lists of 3 or more.