“As if” or “as though”?

January 28th, 2009 at 07:00am Barry Wood

Here’s another “as” issue that tends to divide the experts.

The simplest point of view is that “as if” and “as though” are interchangeable: Choose the one that sounds better for each occasion.

There, wasn’t that easy? And all you have to do is accept the argument of Theodore M. Bernstein in “The Careful Writer.”

Calling the justification “uncomplicated and ancient,” he writes: “An old meaning of ‘though’ is ‘if,’ which is now obsolete except in the expression ‘as though.’ ”

As long as you think of “as though” as an idiomatic unit, it’s the same as “as if.”

Those who insist the two are different focus on the individual words “if” and “though.” The former is an adverbial conjunction of condition, the latter an adverbial conjunction of concession. When breaking it down this way, they say, “as though” loses out because it “doesn’t make sense.”

The Associated Press Stylebook simply says “as if” is “the preferred form, but ‘as though’ is acceptable.” After more than 35 years in the newspaper business, I suspect the key here is “as if” is shorter. Newspapers are always looking to save space.

The safest option is to go with “as if” unless you have a compelling reason for “as though.”

Entry Filed under: word choices, strict usage