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Comment by munchbunny | Hacker News Reader

Yes, you can (I submit myself as the example), but I'm not sure that the article/author is talking about fluency. Anecdotally, I lost fluency in my native tongue during my teens, though I don't carry a non-native accent when I do speak it.

However, I speak/read/write in what is technically my second language (English) as if it were my first language.

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Same here. I left my native country (family chose to move) when I was 8. By 12 or 13 I was probably more fluent in English than the original, although I continued to read, etc. I can still read, think a bit, help my family with duo lingo, but fluency would be a stretch so many years later. However, I have no doubt that if I moved back home, I could pick a fair amount up again in a few months. But I would probably forever be "teenage slang" non-fluent, as well as missing out on common idioms, etc.

My father left his birthplace when he was 4 or 5, and only knows a few words of his first language.

as if it were

Ha. Got me.

past subjunctive, bit** :)

Heck, I'm an English-only speaker, and I still get were/was wrong all the time. Honestly, I have no idea what the rule is there. They both sound correct-ish to me.

In this structure, “were” is used in cases where you are entertaining a hypothetical, and “was” is for something that was true.

English grammar is often confusing in cases like this because verbs mostly don’t have distinct spellings/pronunciations for the subjunctive mood, even though the subjunctive conjugations are part of the grammar.

It also doesn’t help that “subjunctive” is kind of the “else” condition among the three verb moods, the other two being “indicative” and “imperative,” so you often notice that it’s the subjunctive by ruling out the other two.

As a native US english speaker, this was fascinating to read and uncover my unknown learnings. You are not incorrect, but I would make a big caveat: 'as if it were' or 'as if it was' can, depending on context, sound foreign, in a transliterated way. Many native speakers, I think, expect some other phrasing to express the same meaning. Often through helpful ambiguators like 'like'.

The subjunctive is almost dead in colloquial British English.

https://www.thoughtco.com/irrealis-were-grammar-1691045#:~:t...

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