I wish there were a better word than... why use were not was?

Answer 1

It's called the 'subjunctive'. You use 'were' when there is a wish or a hope or a condition attached to the thought - like in the songs "If I were a rich man" or "If I were a carpenter and you were a lady"
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Answer 2

Clifford is correct. Dale is dead wrong (though many speak this way), because he mistakenly thinks the "were" in this sentence is a past- tense form. It is not, as you can see if you take a close look.

Most often when we speak we use "indicative" forms, to speak about things that are real (or at least that we think are!) These include the simple present tense "I am rich", past tense, "I was rich".

But in "I wish I were" you are speaking about a wish, about something that is NOT the case. For this you are supposed to use the "subjunctive" form.

Take a look at your sentence. "I wish I were rich" is NOT about something in the past at all!, so you do not use the"past tense indicative" Rather your wish is for right NOW. (Other evidences of a "subjunctive" situation are verbs like " .... then I would/could... buy anything I want!")

In fact, when you wish to talk about a wish that related to yesterday you would say, "I wish I HAD BEEN rich."

Frankly, it's understandable why people get confused about this in English. Unlike many other European languages), English only has a few distinctive verb forms for the subjunctive -- forms of "to be" and special "modal verbs" ("could", "would", "might", sometimes "should"). And even all of THESE forms have other uses, such as "were" for the past tense indicative in many cases. So, to express the same wish about YOU I would say "I wish you were rich". Now that is the subjunctive form of the verb, but of course it looks exactly the same as the past indicative! Little wonder that people have taken to assuming "I wish I was" works the same way... if they think about it at all.

Answer 3

In your example, you should use "was", because it refers to a single "word" and first person "I".

"Were" can be used as singular or plural at times, where proper use of "was" is singular.

I wish there was a better word....
I wish there were better words....
She wishes there were a better word...

were - Second person singular and plural and first and third person plural past indicative of be

was - First and third person singular past indicative of be

Point well taken Bru, but not absolute:
subjunctive after wish. Yet another traditional rule requires you to use were rather than was in a contrary-to-fact statement that follows the verb wish: I wish I were (not was) lighter on my feet. Many writers continue to insist on this rule, but the indicative was in such clauses can be found in the works of many well-known writers.

So, wrong in the traditional text book sense, but not exactly dead wrong in a language that has and will continue to evolve into forms still considered acceptable in today's usage. Otherwise, we would all be speaking Proper or "Kings" English, or one of the other earlier generations of English.

Answer 4

well, that's a rule for english. English language is very tricky so good luck i guess :)

Answer 5

I feel either of them will be treated as correct usage.

Answer 6

Im confused.....