[General] The King's Speech

I saw this dialogue and wonder if someone can give his input on below question:

And what if my husband were the Duke of York? or
And what if my husband was the Duke of York?

Which one is correct and why?

Thanks is advance
Sambodia

Sambodia said:

I saw this dialogue and I wonder if someone can give his/her input on [STRIKE]below[/STRIKE] the question below:

And what if my husband were the Duke of York? or
And what if my husband was the Duke of York?

Which one is correct and why?

Thanks [STRIKE]is[/STRIKE] in advance.
Sambodia

Click to expand...

When you say "I saw this dialogue...", what do you mean? You read both those sentences together in a dialogue in a book?

Which one do you think is correct and why?

Sambodia said:

I saw this dialogue and wonder if someone can give his input on below question:

And what if my husband were the Duke of York? or
And what if my husband was the Duke of York?

Which one is correct and why?

Thanks is advance
Sambodia

Click to expand...

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


(1) I think that under most circumstances, the correct answer would be

"What if the Duke of York were my husband?"

(a) we are using the so-called subjunctive. We use the subjunctive when it is

not actual reality (If I were the president, I would .... Of course, I am NOT the

president! And I assume that the Duke of York is NOT the husband of the

lady who is speaking.)

(b) "What if the Duke of York was my husband?" would be correct if the lady with

whom you were talking was actually the wife of the Duke.

***

P. S. A small point that may interest you. You wrote "someone can give his

input." Although that is perfect English, today in 2011 people in the United

States prefer that you say/write something like give his/her input or even

(although it breaks the rule) their input. (We no longer use "his input" because

we want to show equal respect to women.)

Thank you very much for your helpful answer
Cheers
Sambodia

TheParser said:

(a) we are using the so-called subjunctive. We use the subjunctive when it is

not actual reality (If I were the president, I would .... Of course, I am NOT the

president! And I assume that the Duke of York is NOT the husband of the

lady who is speaking.)

(b) "What if the Duke of York was my husband?" would be correct if the lady with

whom you were talking was actually the wife of the Duke.

Click to expand...

Actually, the person asking the question in the film was the Duke's wife. However, she was posing the question as a hypothetical one, and therefore 'were' is correct.