Conditional sentences are sentences that express one thing contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled". They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is conditional on the dependent clause.

Why do we use were in the conditional?

We have already learned that the second conditional form is used to talk about unreal or imaginary situations. Here we use a simple past tense in the if-clause and would + infinitive in the main clause.

Was or were in a sentence?

If you want to remember easily, you can think of was/were as the past tense form of the auxiliary verbs am, is and are. Generally, “was is used for singular objects and “were” is used for plural objects. So, you will use “was” with I, he, she and it while you will use “were” with you, we and they.