seabhi wrote:
Hi,
Can somebody please explain this.
This sentence is in subjunctive mood, since the imposter is not really a licensed practitioner, but is just trying to fake it. So it is a hypothetical scenario.
In case of subjunctive mood
were is used instead of
was. Just remember these famous lines from Tim Hardin's song
If I were a carpenter, and you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway?
Would you have my baby? Now in this question only option
A correctly portrays the subjunctive mood, but in case there were 2 options as below
-- as though she were a licensed practitioner
-- as if she were a licensed practitioner
Then it would have been tough to select the correct answer, as grammatically both are correct and imply the same meaning.
There is a very subtle difference between "as if" and "as though", "as if" is used to refer to a less likely scenario. For e.g.
1.) You are so scared of him
as if he is going to eat you.
2.) You are so scared of him
as though he is going to hit you.
Now you could also use "as if" in the 2nd sentence but given a choice "as though" would be more suitable.
Coming back to the original sentence, the imposter could have easily been a licensed practitioner, it's not like
she behaved as if she were a dragon.
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