In point of usage, Ngrams shows a slight preference for What about you: COCA shows 770 instances of how about you, the vast majority of which are in the proper context (a few are in the form of how about you do so-and-so), and 1002 of what about you, all of which that I saw were in this context. BNC has 78 versus 202, an even more marked ...

In your specific case, neither 'was' nor 'were' is best; you should say "if it is running". "If it were running" is subjunctive case, used to describe hypothetical situations: "If it were running, I would stop it first, but it's already stopped."

2010年9月25日 · You've likely seen the common example: The human brain often skips any extra words that appear in the the sentence they're reading. The same behaviour might happen with the extra "that" appearing in your sentence. So while it might be correct in theory, perhaps you could reword your sentence such that it becomes more readable for your audience.

2012年2月22日 · I really like to chat with English folks, so I have wished them Merry Christmas. To my surprise I have noticed the following pattern — the British answered "and to you", but Americans "you too". The former was a form I hadn't seen before and I felt really awkward. My question is, which one is more polite and what is the difference between them?

2010年9月22日 · Before they all merged into the catch-all form you, English second person pronouns distinguished between nominative and objective, as well as between singular and plural (or formal): thou - singular informal, subject (Thou art here. = You are here.) thee - singular informal, object (He gave it to thee.) ye - plural or formal, subject

2020年2月10日 · If you were asked whether you have ever had an accident while driving, you might answer that you had a couple of accidents when you were younger. It is of course the past tense. If you reported this conversation, you could say that you told him that you have had past accidents. It is sometimes called the past perfect tense.

2012年4月3日 · What he is saying implicitly is: this is the way things have been done since time immemorial, and you modern idiots are complicit in the degeneration of the English language. Whereas, in reality, Shakespeare's usage (not the same as modern usage) evolved into Fowler's usage, and Fowler's usage evolved into modern usage, and none of them is ...

Possible Duplicate: “If I was” or “If I were”. Which is more common, and which is correct? If I was to sum up my computer knowledge in one word, it would be “destitute”.

As you say, it doesn't make a lot of sense as an article, and many Americans currently spell it "ahold" in this idiom. This Ngram compares "take a hold" and "take ahold"; "take a hold" shows up around 1780, while "take hold" was around for two centuries before that (Shakespeare used it), and dwarfs both lines on this Ngram.

The conjunction or makes the subject a singular subject: James or Mark, only one of the two guys, is going to help you. I don't know which, but both won't. You can always avoid the problem by changing the verb from is going to to will: James and Mark will help you. (Either [Implied but optional]) James or Mark will help you.