أعط أجوبة - English

Because in fact English does have a 'subjunctive mood', like Spanish, French and Portuguese. However, the conjugation is really only visible in verbs like 'to be'. It has nothing to do with the number of people involved - it just happens to be that 'were' is the verb ending used. So - If I were, if you were, if he/she/it were, if we were etc. It's used in conditional sentences like, "If I were you, I would buy that car." Nowadays it's very common to say just 'if I was', and it's accepted in most grammar books. However, 'if I were' is still used by more educated people, and it just sounds nicer. If you want to say 'if I was' - go ahead, but if you want to make your English sound really nice, try 'if I were'. Good luck!

As nelthoro has eluded to, past subjunctive and simple past in English have identical conjugations except for ”to be.

”If I was” - the simple past form of the conditional - is definitely also legitimate and has a different meaning to the subjunctive ”If I were”.

In short, the difference in meaning is that the subjunctive form ”if I were” describes advice from the perspective of putting yourself in the position of the person/people you are giving the advice to and expressing the wish and/or hope that this person / these people implement your advice.

The simple past form ”if I was” simply gives an unemotional assessment of the situation and a course of action to follow.

For example:

If I were you, I would study English more. <-- expressing the hope/wish/desire that someone improves their English. You personally want them to increase their level.

If I was you, I would study English more. <-- expressing a cold hard fact that studying English more = improved English. You don't genuinely care if the person/people you give the advice to actually implement the advice or not.

Apart from "to be", past subjunctive and past simple can only be distinguished with context.

This is the likely reason why many native English speakers - including "teachers" of English - can't distinguish between "if I were" and "if I was" in conditional sentences.They *don't* mean the same thing!

As nelthoro has also pointed out, "'if I were" "sounds nicer" than "if I was". That's because advice given with a genuine hope for improvement always sounds much better than a cold hard fact from an uncaring bureaucrat :)

The word ”were” is used in conditional sentences, even if the subject of the sentence is singular. This is because conditional sentences are hypothetical, meaning they are talking about something that could happen but may not. The word ”were” helps to create a sense of uncertainty in the sentence. https://elastic-man.com

Cuz it is conditional sentence ,,,in conditional sentences we use we're with singular and plural