Question

"My hand was positioned as if I was holding an orange to the piano, just as she said."

Is it "I was" or "I were"? People normally say "I were", but I don't know if that's actually grammatically correct.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I were

Answer 2

Lisa is correct. If you want the explanation about why, read about the subjunctive mood here:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/verbs.htm#mood
In that sentence, "as if I were holding..." is a conditional clause.

Answer 3

The reason we say "I were" in this construction is that we use the conditional tense after "if."

Answer 4

Writeacher is right. It's the subjunctive tense.