I've heard people say “as it were” quite often. It doesn't even sound wrong to me anymore. But shouldn't it really be “as it WAS” instead, for proper subject verb agreement?
As it were
December 19th, 2007 by niskys
13 Responses to “As it were”
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Isn't it the subjunctive? Isn't it saying proposing a condition contrary to fact?
Wonderful Drew – there are at least two of us who remember the subjunctive!
If I were a bit quicker off the mark, I'd have posted the same comment…
Gosh – it'll be gerunds next!!
True. That is subjunctive. I not a native English speaker. I learn English such that I know grammar.. Subjective is one of the most difficult parts of English to many non-native students….
This phrase is one of the cases where "were" is still required in the third person singular. In other counterfactual statements, we can use either "was" or "were", for instance
I wish I were/was going with you.
If I were/was stronger…
"were" is also required when it is inverted:
Were I stronger…
*Was I stronger…
And also when followed by another verb:
If I were to go…
?If I was to go…
"As" is a rare lead-in of the subjunctive. We are more used to the "if".
As though I were an authority on grammar, I post the above.
As it were, I suppose I could be.
This case is one of Subjunctive Mood. When you use the subjunctive, you are referring to something that factually is not the case – as in "wish."
(My non-technical answer.)
The subjunctive is indeed incorporated into this expression. However, I'd suggest you treat this as a particular idiom along the lines of "so to speak."
Long live the subjunctive! ;)
Drew and semiotek, I know it too. I'm used to "if", "though", "though" without "as", "wish", and even "as" itself leading the subjunctive.
This one bothers me, too. I find the phrase "as it were" to almost always sound stilted, but then again, I am also bothered by "an historic".
'an historic' is probably stilted if 'historic' is actually pronounced with [h]. And maybe even sometimes if it isn't.
Some speakers have it naturally, though, with [h]-deletion conditioned by stress.
If stress is on the first syllable, [h] is pronounced, and 'a' thus appears as the article:
a history book
If stress is not on the first syllable, [h] deletes, and 'an' is selected:
an {h}istoric occasion
an {h}istorical novel