The construction "If he were a rich man ..." is also known as a counterfactual, and it is technically wrong to write "If he was a rich man ...", as has already been explained.
In this case it should read- When i was a rich girl.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! If i were a rich girl. Simple really.
Not if you want to sound smart. Switch around 'were' with 'was', and that would be correct. In Germanic languages such as English, the past subjunctive form of a verb is based off the imperfect form. In Anglo-Saxon, the language Beowulf is written in and the language English is descended from, there were two imperfect forms of a verb, one used for the first and third person, and another for the rest. The latter one was used for the past subjunctive. An example: bītan - 'to bite'. First form is bāt-, second form is bit-. ic bāt — I bit þū bite — thou bit hē bāt — he bit wē biton — we bit gē biton — ye bit hīo biton — they bit The form used for past subjunctive is bit-. ic bite — [if] I bit þū bite — [if] thou bit hē bite — [if] he bit wē biten — [if] we bit gē biten — [if] ye bit hīo biten — [if] they bit Notice we don't say something like "The dog bate me" instead of "The dog bit me". That's because the distinction between first imperfect and second imperfect eroded away since then, except in the verb 'to be'. First form is wæs-, second form is wǣr-. ic wæs — I was þū wǣre — thou wert hē wæs — he was wē wǣron — we were gē wǣron — ye were hīo wǣron — they were If the distinction between first imperfect and second imperfect had eroded away in 'to be', we all (and not just people from Yorkshire) would say something like, "She were beautiful". In every verb except 'to be', the imperfect and past subjunctive forms of the verb are exactly the same in all persons. I bit > if I bit thou bit > if thou bit etc. I think this has consequently caused an erosion in the distinction between imperfect and past subjunctive altogether, thus people saying "if I was" when it should be "if I were". Because people anally decide not to learn correct grammar. As raven said, you would normally use 'whom' as the object. I was hit by whom? You were hit by him. They love her! Who? The Harijuku Girls. And whom? Gwen Stefani. But nowadays, 'whom' is almost as obsolete as 'thou'. To me it's incorrect. "This is a hhhistoric fact". I go "hhhkhkh" when I say 'historic'. But then I say "I am an 'onest man". There's no breathy hacking like in 'historic'. And it irritates me to see or hear "an 'istoric". I don't need a sleazy shirt to tell me my knot is hot.
