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"If I were misusing a word."

Just trying to help ;-)

Can you elaborate? I thought 'was' is for 1st person (I) and 3rd person (he/she), and 'were' is for 2nd person (you,your, etc).

Update: So I just googled around and learned that "were" is used for the subjunctive mood i.e. wishes/thoughts. Good to know!

Your update is correct. Verbs have moods, which is so cool to me. An article/blog about subjunctive verbs: http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/subjuncti...

Fun fact: all our perceptions of other people's emotion is "in our mind". Doesn't make the perception invalid.

Why misusing? Language has meaning by the convention of its users -- not by the fiat of English teachers. By the consensus of informal English, "less" and "fewer" can both be used in that scenario (by definition, since lots of people do it).