TinyProf's Grammar Breakdown 🎓

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1. What We're Solving

You're asking whether both "It looks as though it were going to rain" and "It looked as though it were going to rain" are grammatically correct — and whether the subjunctive form stays the same while only the main verb shifts in time.

This touches on something many advanced learners find genuinely confusing.

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2. The Approach

To solve this, we need to separate two different grammatical jobs happening in these sentences:

• The main verb ("looks/looked") — this carries the tense of the observation
• The subjunctive verb ("were") — this signals hypothetical or unreal meaning

These two jobs are independent of each other, and understanding why is the key insight here.

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3. Step-by-Step Solution

Step 1: Understand What "As Though" Does

The phrase "as though" (like "as if") introduces a hypothetical comparison — it describes something that appears a certain way without claiming it's actually true. This is the classic trigger for the subjunctive mood.

> 💡 Think of "as though" as a flag that says: "Warning — what follows is imagined, not confirmed!"

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Step 2: Understand Why "Were" Appears

In subjunctive constructions, English uses "were" for all persons (I, he, she, it) to signal unreality or hypothesis — regardless of tense context.

| Normal indicative | Subjunctive (hypothetical) | |---|---| | It was going to rain | as though it were going to rain | | He was tired | as though he were tired |

The "were" doesn't change because its job is to mark mood (hypothetical), not time.

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Step 3: Now Look at the Main Verb

The main verb "looks" vs. "looked" simply tells us when the observation is happening:

| Sentence | Time of Observation | |---|---| | It looks as though it were going to rain | The speaker is observing right now | | It looked as though it were going to rain | The speaker was observing in the past |

The subjunctive "were" stays frozen in both cases because it's doing a completely different grammatical job — expressing unreality, not tracking time.

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Step 4: Confirm Both Are Correct

• ✅ Does "looks/looked" correctly reflect when the observation happens? → Yes
• ✅ Does "were" correctly signal a hypothetical situation? → Yes
• ✅ Is "as though" a legitimate subjunctive trigger? → Yes

Both sentences are grammatically correct. Only the time reference changes.

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4. The Answer

🎯 Yes, both sentences are correct!

• "It looks as though it were going to rain" — present tense observation + subjunctive
• "It looked as though it were going to rain" — past tense observation + subjunctive

The subjunctive "were" remains constant in both sentences because it marks hypothetical meaning (mood), not time. The main verb ("looks/looked") is the only thing that shifts to reflect when the observation occurred.

These are two independent grammatical layers working side by side — one handling time, the other handling reality vs. hypothesis.

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5. Memory Tip 💡

"WERE = Unreal Everywhere"

Whenever you see "as if," "as though," "wish," or "if only" — these are signals of unreality. In those moments, "were" never changes no matter what tense surrounds it, because its only job is to wave the "this isn't real!" flag.

Think of "were" in subjunctives like a costume — the sentence can change its shirt (present/past), but the costume always stays the same! 🎭