P.S. I forgot to mention: I'm not 100% certain about this but I think the ambiguity about whether to use "if I were" or "if I was" arises from the fact that languages are alive and constantly changing. I think, at some point in the not-too-distant past, "if I were" would have been the only acceptable option. The subjunctive probably used to be used much more frequently. However, because we now rarely use the subjunctive, it is being displaced by "if I were." Part of the problem is that contemporary English has no conditional tense. We have to use a collage of the verb tenses available to express conditionality. This is, I think, the main reason that conditionals are so difficult. Native speakers acquire the acceptable structures for conditionals without thinking about it, but learners are confronted with this messy thing in evolution. Studying English conditionals is a bit like catching and taming a tiger. They're rare and wild animals! Good luck with them, Tanya! Have fun ; )

However, because you seem to be the kind of person who won’t rest until she fully understands something (I sense in you a kindred spirit!), you’re probably now also wondering about the subjunctive: what is it, when/how do you use it, and do you really have to worry about it as part of your English learning journey? As with the above, ridiculously in-depth discussion about if-clauses and hypothetical conditionals in general, the subjunctive is a topic that receives almost no attention in most discussions of English grammar because it’s rarely used nowadays, except in formulaic phrases that most speakers learn by rote and take for granted, without ever wondering why the verb phrases don’t follow “normal” patterns. This article https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/easy-learning/the-subjunctive provides a pretty good explanation of the subjunctive, with examples. Note that, in your target sentence, you would be using the past subjunctive in the if-clause. There you go, Tanya! My best attempt at a complete answer to your excellent and thought-provoking question. Do be in touch if you have any questions but also be proud that you've reached this level of depth with your exploration of English grammar. You seem to be doing extremely well! Happy learning : )

Hopefully, that helps to explain the overall structure of your conditional phrase. Now let’s look more closely at the main question: should it be “if I wasn’t” or “if I weren’t” and why? The best description of conditionals that I have found so far is in “The Grammar Book” by Diane Larsen-Freeman and Marianne Celce-Murcia. They have an awesome flow chart describing conditionals. Note, however, that I have found errors and inconsistencies even in this supremely thorough treatment of the subject, and your current target conditional is a prime example. It’s a perfectly logical utterance that any English speaker would understand and accept, but it’s not accounted for by any resource I have found to date. But I digress. “The Grammar Book” says that the if-clause in a present counterfactual can be EITHER if + simple past OR if + present subjunctive. So there you have it: two of the world’s foremost grammar experts would accept either one. Will your TOEFL examiner know all of this? Probably not. In all likelihood, particularly if your examiner is a native speaker, (s)he will accept either one without blinking. However, if you can find a way to check if TOEFL has a kind of “style guide” on this, that might put your mind at ease. However, This is such a tiny detail that, now that you know all of the above, it will absolutely not make a big difference in your final assessment even if you stumble upon an examiner who happens to arbitrarily prefer one or the other based on incomplete information. Just feel good knowing that you now know that either one is an appropriate choice.

You’re on the right track in thinking about this as a hypothetical situation. In fact, you’re looking at a counterfactual hypothetical where the first clause is a present hypothetical counterfactual (the speaker is a scientist but is imagining counterfactual reality in which (s)he is not a scientist), and the second one is a past hypothetical counterfactual (in the imaginary world in which the speaker is not a scientist, (s)he would not have done the experiment in the past). This is one source of confusion: the “present,” as used to describe facts (e.g. status as scientist), technically covers past, present, and future simultaneously. For this reason, the if-clause for this conditional is in the “present” time and thus can indeed be either If + simple past (if I wasn’t) OR If + present subjunctive (if I weren’t). However, because the counterfactual action (not conducting the experiment) would have happened in the past, the then-clause will follow the would/could/should + perfect aspect formula (I would never have done the experiment).

Hi Tanya, Excellent question! I have to tell you: even as an experienced teacher and native English speaker, I find conditionals confusing. I am working on mastering them and finding a good way to help students learn them, but it’s really not easy. One thing I can tell you is that I find the concepts of the zero, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd conditionals worse than useless. In my experience, the “rules” associated with this way of organizing conditionals have countless “exceptions.” In my opinion, they are more confusing than helpful. I wish I had a better framework for you but I haven’t yet found or developed it. All to say: good for you for looking so closely at the details of this difficult and confusing aspect of English grammar! You seem to be handling it extremely well and you’ve identified one of the most confusing details. Brace yourself–here comes a super technical attempt at an answer to your question! I wish I could make better use of fonts and layout to make the following easier to digest but this forum has its limitations in that regard. If you’re really interested in this, just take your time and read through the following step by step. I would even suggest breaking it down sentence by sentence. If you have any questions, let me know!

Hi Ethan, Interesting question! The expression "amped up on something" is used in contemporary English, but it is not used particularly frequently. If you are interested in this kind of information, I would suggest that you learn how to use a corpus. In case you’ve never heard of corpora before, they are basically language databases, i.e. large, searchable collections of language samples. You can do a lot of different things with these, one of them being to get a sense of the frequency of use of target vocabulary words and expressions. You could try COCA (the Corpus of Contemporary American English): https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/. You need to register for a free account to use this tool, and it can be confusing at first. You might want to do a search for something like “how to use the corpus of contemporary American English” and read some articles/watch some videos (e.g. https://youtu.be/zyNwUp8vwZU). I did two searches for you - I hope you’ll be able to access the results! If you have trouble accessing the search links, you might have to register for your own COCA account but I think you can see the results with the link alone. A search on COCA yielded only 20 hits for "amped up on*": https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/?c=coca&q=99241353. 20 hits is a really low frequency count. Just to give you an idea, compare this to the frequency count for the expression "bite the bullet": https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/?c=coca&q=99241464. You'll see that the frequency count for this expression is 314. What this tells you is that “amped up on” is in use, but not frequently. In terms of your English learning, what this further tells you is that it’s maybe good that you now have a sense of the meaning of “amped up on” in case you hear/read it, but studying this expression with a view to using it yourself might not be the optimal use of your study time. I hope this helps! Happy learning : )

Hi Oleg, Interesting questions! It’s great to see you seeking to really feel and understand the subtle differences between these adjectives. The other respondents have already given you some good tips on the definitions of these words, but I wanted to add a suggestion that you might want to try exploring a corpus such as https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/ to find examples of target words in use. You need to register for a free account to use this tool, and it can be confusing at first. You might want to do a search for something like “how to use the corpus of contemporary American English” and read some articles/watch some videos (e.g. https://youtu.be/zyNwUp8vwZU). In case you’ve never heard of corpora before, they are basically language databases, i.e. large, searchable collections of language samples. You can do a lot of different things with these, one of them being to look at lots of examples of the use of target vocabulary words. If you want to broaden your vocabulary, studying definitions is a good first step, but to “acquire” the vocabulary you’re studying and have it spontaneously available in your speaking and writing, you need to go further. You need to give yourself multiple exposures to the word in use, in different contexts. Corpora can help you. Here is an example of what you’ll get if you look to see how “glow” is used in speech: https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/?c=coca&q=99241331 and in writing on the web: https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/?c=coca&q=99241279. The great thing about corpora is that they usually also give you frequency information, i.e. they tell you how often your target word is used in different contexts. This can help you to decide whether the word is worth your time and effort: will you need to understand and use it in the contexts where you want to use your English? I hope this helps, Oleg! Happy learning : )

Hi Diego, Great question! You're asking about "indefinite pronouns." There are 12 indefinite pronouns. Note that there are four prefixes (some, any, no, every) and 3 suffixes (-body, -one, -thing): somebody, someone, something anybody, anyone, anything nobody, *no one (the only one written as two words), nothing everybody, everyone, everything We use the prefix EVERY- to talk about ALL members of a group or ALL items in a collection: - Everyone at the party had a great time. - It only took us half an hour to clean everything up because everybody helped out. We use the prefix NO- to talk about the absence of something or the fact that none of the people in a group or items in a collection apply: - The party was so much fun that no one wanted to leave! There was nothing I could do. Nobody wanted it to end! Your question is about the two prefixes used to talk about an unknown or uncertain quantity or part - SOME- and ANY-. The question is: how do we know when to use ANY- and when to use SOME- ? SOME- : Use for positive statements. ANY- : Use for negative statements and questions. Although "Bring something to the party" and "Bring anything to the party" look similar, there is a slight difference. If you're using this statement to prompt people to bring items, you must use SOMEthing: “Bring something to the party!” You would use ANYthing to tell people NOT to bring things to the party: "You don't need to bring anything - we've got it all covered!" Your friends might use it to ask you if you want them to help out by bringing items: "Would you like us to bring anything?" Exception to the rule: SOME- can be used in questions when offering something or asking for something, but usually there will be some specification: - Would you like us to bring something to the party, like maybe some chips or a few bottles of wine? - Would you like something to drink? I hope this helps! Happy learning : )