26 Past Subjunctives

Past Subjunctives are used to express imaginary conditions.

Past Subjunctive looks like past tense but be verb is always were in past subjunctive (even in third person).

• If I were you, I would go to the house in the country to get rid of stress.
• He started to cry as if he had a horrible dream.
• What would Matt’s family do if he suffered an illness?

We use Past Subjunctive structure when we want to talk about an imaginary situation in the past. They can refer to unrealistic conditions.