What if...

Which of these two sentences is correct?

What if there was no heaven, or what if there were no heaven?

Yes; though in other contexts, you might distinguish between the two forms as follows:

1. What if there were no light?

2. What if there was no light?

In #1, we pose a general question, as in your "heaven" example: "What if there were no light? How would plants grow? How would we know there were other galaxies? How could Australia ever win back the Ashes?"

In #2, we discuss a possibility in the past: "We are assuming that the accused knew that the victim was at home because he saw the light in the window. But what if there was no light? What if the victim had already gone to bed?"

(Also, in British English, "What if there was..." is commonly used instead of "What if there were..." in sense #1.)

MrP

Hello Latin

There are some cases where it's grammatically incorrect to say "what if + subjunctive", as in my example #2.

In cases of "what if..." that follow the pattern of my example #1, it's probably better in formal writing to use the subjunctive, as then you will never be incorrect.

But in BrE, you'll find "what if" without the subjunctive in both formal and informal contexts.

MrP