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I just messaged a friend the sentence:

If you fought yourself, who would win?

But it sounds awkward to me.

This sounds more correct to me:

If you were to fight yourself, who would win?

Grammatically, which is correct?

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    They both sound fine to me.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented Apr 30, 2018 at 22:06

1 Answer 1

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The backshift to fought and the subjunctive were are both ways of indicating that the sentence is not a declaration of fact but a hypothetical or conditional.

Compare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suppose_They_Gave_a_War_and_Nobody_Came

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  • What does "backshift" mean?
    – user29750
    Commented Jan 16, 2022 at 17:10
  • "Backshift" refers to the use of the past tense of the verb instead of the present, or the use of the past perfect instead of the past, in situations where the clause is not asserting a present fact or a past fact but is stating something that is now (or was then) hypothetical, conjectural, suppositional, a wish, reported speech, and so forth
    – TimR
    Commented Jan 17, 2022 at 19:20

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