If it hadn't been for her (grammatically correct) why did you use "if it wasn't for her"? is this how native english speakers say it?

Yes "wasn't for her" would be something a native speaker might say.

[deleted]

It’s amazing how many of the questions here are about poetic license, tv shows, movies, slang, and the like.

\*why did they use !!

Both are grammatically correct, its a very outdated approach to suggest it isn’t grammatically correct when so many people do it with no eyebrows raised, i understand for an english class you might be encouraged to do it a more traditional way though. Just as a general thing the subjunctive mood is an optional feature in english, id be more likely to use it in formal contexts but i still might not, and i near never use it in casual contexts, you can treat a subjunctive phrase like “if——“ as if it was just an indicative one (see what i did there)

Yeah, "if it wasn't for him/her/that" (singular) and "if it weren't for them" (plural)

"If it hadn't been for her" might sound best in British.

Yep. We say that. (USA). It says exactly the same thing in fewer words, so it’s much more common in informal speech. It’s also common to shorten it all the way down to “if not for her…”

"Weren't" is technically the most correct here, but the subjunctive mood is kind of dying (sadly).

Yes, in the US at least, it's a fairly common saying. There's a variation on the phrase that was commonly used at the end of episodes of the cartoon Scooby Doo. After unmasking the villain who was disguising himself as a monster or ghost, the main characters would explain how the villain was attempting to commit some kind of crime and cover it up as being some kind of supernatural occurrence. Then the villain would say "And I would have gotten away with it too, *if it weren't for you meddling kids!*"

In linguistics, grammar is fluid. It is always subject to change. English of today is much more different than English of the past. It's also probably the case in your native language as well. The people decide what means what, grammar is an attempt to understand that.

I’ll also add that Family Guy is a show that takes place in Rhode Island and the script (in the earlier seasons at least) heavily uses the dialects from the New England (MA, RI, CT, NH, VT, ME) area which have very specific idioms and colloquialisms that aren’t necessarily present in many other forms of American English. This one isn’t regionally specific, but I thought it would be worth noting if you’re watching the show and getting conflicting information about phrases later on, the definitions or clarifications that have origins in New England would be the most “correct” for this show specifically, even if the answers aren’t exactly the most grammatically correct.

“If it wasn’t for her” would sound natural and be used widely but technically speaking the correct form is “If it weren’t for her.”

Wasn't and weren't would both work. [Here's a famous old example.](https://youtu.be/N2YQqbpA7Z0?t=648)

This is one of the most frustrating things as someone who learned English through internet, this phrase sounds totally natural to me but it would have been considered incorrect in an official test

If referring to a past action/event, I’d say “if it hadn’t been for the airbags, I’d have died.” A car accident is the implied event. If I’m referring to a person or thing, I’d say, “if it weren’t for my mom, I wouldn’t be here today.” (Like the Family Guy example, except I say “weren’t” because I’m a grammar stickler). If I’m asking a question about an intended recipient, I’d say “If it wasn’t for Sally, who was it for?” Not a rule, just a reflection on my own usage!

Honestly I wasn't aware "if it wasn't for her" was not correct (and it seems from other comments it's a grey area). I'm pretty confident the overwhelming majority of native speakers would not register that as an error.

Yep

I've been mulling this for an hour, and I can't see the unreal time. It's not. It's a colloquial way in the US of negating a fact: "I've met you Peter because of her." Unreal time would be: "Had it not been for her, I don't know if I would have met you."

Native speakers tend to simplify sentences like that whenever possible - especially in the U.S. Technically your variant is correct it just takes too many words so naturally that’s what a native speaker would do while keeping it all in the past. Also making sure that it’s the right conditional tense.

Dosent Lois have a pretty heavy North eastern accent

A lot of native speakers don't distinguish between the past perfect and the past simple. To them, they're both about the past, both are "past tense". Ask them why you still say "If I were you" for the present, they'd likely have no idea.

Conditional sticky when??

"Wasn't for her" and "Hadn't been for her" here are different verb tenses like in "was" and "had been". "Had been" usually refers to a more distant past than "was". And yes, you are supposed to say "weren't" instead of "wasn't", but native speakers usually say "wasn't". Like, you should say "if I were a rich man", not "if i WAS a rich man".

More formal: hadn't it been for her...

People have already answered your question, but as a native American English speaker, I would never have guessed that this way was incorrect. "Wasn't, hadn't, and weren't" all sound fine to me here, though I'd use "weren't" the least personally.

If it wasn't for her would be something like if she didn't exist. If it hadn't been for her is more of a "if she hadn't been there (in that particular moment/situation). Grammatically speaking, if it hadn't been for her would be a better choice, but American English is called "simplified" for a reason lol

“If it wasn’t for her”, “if it weren’t for her”, and “if it hadn’t been for her” are all things native speakers would say and they mean the same thing.