as if he (was, had been) a doctor

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keannu

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This is a queston of my grammar book.
The answer here is "had been", which means that "had been" denotes counterfactual hypothesis in as if clause, but from teachers here, I learned "had been" doesn't give a definite answer for being true or false. What do you think?

A : He talks as if he (was, had been) a doctor.
B : In fact, he was a nurse.
 

keannu

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Is "had been" the only answer here?

A : He talks as if he (was, had been) a doctor.
B : In fact, he was a nurse.
 

Rover_KE

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'He talks as if he was (or 'were') a doctor' is acceptable to me.

Rover
 
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