Poll: If this thread...

[Jaime_Wolf]

If willing, put your age, place, and response. Given the age and place demographics of the Escapist forum, I'm curious how many of you still have a robust subjunctive in your English (if you answered "were", you have a strongly marked subjunctive).

IMPORTANT PREFACE: Neither can reasonably be called "correct". This change has been happening for over a century and the general population is split, leaning toward "was". Even if you think one is more "correct", I don't care: that isn't the question. The question is which one you say/which sounds better to you, not which one your misguided and underqualified English teacher told you to say/told you to consider better.

For some background, English is currently in the middle of losing a marked subjunctive in many situations.

For more fun: do you pronounce "caught" and "cot" the same or differently?

 

[omicron1]

Huh. Having read the poll post, I'm having trouble deciding. I feel like I'd use the two in different situations. (depending on, perhaps, if I were (<-that one came naturally) engaging the thread itself at the time or talking about it objectively) but I couldn't give a definitive answer.

For "cot" and "caught," I pronounce them differently internally - multiple movements going into the "augh" part of caught as opposed to a single position for "o" in cot, but the sound that comes out is roughly the same. I will take longer to say "caught" than to say "cot."

Age/place: 21, California. I tend to mix accents/speech styles a bit, though.

 

[viranimus]

Well I would say it depends on if its spoken or written. If it is spoken, Was would flow more easily. However were would be more appropriate to use in written form from grammatical standpoint.

 

[Simskiller]

Voted was, like omicron I would use both. I would use "was" to someone I would be talking to about the thread and "were" to the people posting in the thread.

I always pronouce Caught and Cot differently. Never even thought they sounded the same.

EDIT: OHSHI- forgot age and place of residence. 19, Manitoba Canada (but British and raised in Ontario)

EDIT 2: Just thought I would use "were" if it was phrased "If that thread were anymore boring I'd die."

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

Were.

It's easier to say with an Australian accent, and is more correct, I think.

...were I to answer any other way, it would be wrong.

Yep. Were.

Oh, 23, female, Australian with English parents!

And caught and cot? They sound completely different to me. "Caught" would be pronounced "caw-ht", while "cot" has a short "oa" sound to it.

 

[onewheeled]

Age: 15
Place: California

Like the others, I'm kinda undecided about which to pick. I chose "were" in the poll, without really thinking about it, but I really don't know.

I'm just gonna go with what this guy said:

Well I would say it depends on if its spoken or written. If it is spoken, Was would flow more easily. However were would be more appropriate to use in written form from grammatical standpoint.

 

[Nerdygamer89]

21, male, Tennessee.

Picked the second option (were).

 

[flim.geek.chic]

age: 23
location: Washington D.C.

I say "Caught" Like I'd say "Bought", not "Cot".

 

[AvsJoe]

For more fun: do you pronounce "caught" and "cot" the same or differently?

Very slightly different. "Cot" has a harder, more pronounced "o" sound than "caught". I have a strong Southern Ontario accent, so maybe that's why.

 

[FalloutJack]

Both are incorrect.

"If this thread were any more boring, YOU would die."

Truth me, it's this. The unforgiving masses would destroy you.

 

[Drakmeire]

I pronounce caught as caw-t and cot the way it's spelled
I'd if this tread WAS any more boring I'd kill myself.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

For the record: pronouncing "cot" and "caught" as different or the same is almost purely geographical. Some dialects possess two distinct "au" vowels, some do not. Mine (California), for instance, does not.

For even more mindfuckery: if you don't pronounce them differently and you talk to someone who does, it's extremely likely that you won't be consciously aware that they're different or able to tell them apart without hearing the words isolated and paying close attention (you can wikipedia "Categorical Perception" for more on why this is). Usually context can clue you in on which one a person means, but it can lead to funny misunderstandings, compounded by the fact that the person who says them differently can't understand how you would ever get them confused.

As for the was/were, mixed usage is pretty normal for a lot of the US right now. It's hard to know for sure because people really overestimate how often they use "were" when you compare their guesses to their actual speech. And it's essentially impossible to say which is more "grammatically correct" even if you want to play the historical prescriptivism game (which makes especially little sense in the context of this thread). The change has been happening for something like a century and right now we're pretty close to 50-50, leaning toward elimination of a strongly marked subjunctive in English by most professional estimations.

 

[Phlakes]

Well, "If this thread were" is correct, so that one.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't read: 22, in Austin, Texas. And I pronounce those two words the same way.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

For more fun: do you pronounce "caught" and "cot" the same or differently?

Very slightly different. "Cot" has a harder, more pronounced "o" sound than "caught". I have a strong Southern Ontario accent, so maybe that's why.

Same here, Saskatchewan raised here.

Oh and I would use "were" here. I hope your study is a success.

 

[The Wykydtron]

This thread bores m... Oh i see what you did there OP

OT: Were, cawt not cot and 17 English male

 

[StBishop]

20, Australia, Raised by British Ex-Pat Parents, Edit: Male.

I'd have used were, rather than was.

I pronounce Caught more like Court than Cot...
Infact the way I speak Caught and Court are homophones.

 

[smithy_2045]

In the poll sentence, was feels more natural.

 

[badgersprite]

This twenty year old Australian says "was". Were sounds incorrect to me, I guess because it's singular. I know you say that shouldn't be the reason, but that doesn't alter the fact that "this thread were" sounds totally weird and wrong to me. I can't even picture anyone saying it that way. Except maybe a stereotypical hillbilly.

But then I'm a snob, so what else would you expect but snooty elitism from the likes of one such as I? *adjusts monocle*