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PARIS BOOK IN 2025: BOOK TITLE - IS IT BAD GRAMMAR? – Blog  36

Readers have a burning question about my Paris book …

MARTINA NICOLLS

Apr 1

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My Paris book – If Paris Were My Lover – was released last month, in March 2025, with encouraging reviews, and one big question.

First – the reviews. Here is one posted on Amazon:

5 out of 5 stars - A Poetic Love Affair with Paris - Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2025 – Kelly P

If Paris Were My Lover is not just a book—it’s an experience. Martina Nicolls weaves an intimate, lyrical narrative that explores Paris as both a city and a lover, capturing the essence of its beauty, contradictions, and irresistible pull. This is not your typical travel memoir or romance novel; it’s a deeply personal reflection on love, loss, self-discovery, and the passage of time.

Nicolls’ writing is elegant and evocative, rich with sensory details that transport you straight into the cobblestone streets, cafés, and rain-soaked mornings of Paris. She explores her nomadic life, relationships, and identity, using the city as both a backdrop and a metaphor for love—passionate, fleeting, and often elusive. Each chapter feels like a whispered conversation, filled with philosophical musings and poetic prose that make you stop and reflect.

This book is perfect for dreamers, romantics, and anyone who has ever felt a deep connection to a place. I’m giving it 5 stars because it’s beautifully written, emotionally resonant, and unlike anything I’ve read before. If you’ve ever loved a city—or a person—you’ll find a piece of yourself in these pages.

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

Now, the big burning question that my readers have is: Is the title of the book, If Paris Were My Lover, bad grammar?

Readers point out that Paris is singular (one) and therefore the title should be If Paris Was My Lover. Yet the title uses the plural (many) form – If Paris Were My Lover.

I’ve been asked to shed some light on this grammatically incorrect title.

The grammatically correct title is: If Paris Were My Lover.

It is grammatically correct because the title is in the subjunctive mood, which is used to express hypothetical, unreal, or contrary-to-fact situations. In other words, the title and story are based on a hypothesis – something that is supposed but not necessarily real or true.

As a reminder – there are three grammatical moods in English: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive. The indicative mood states facts. The imperative mood gives an order or instruction. The subjunctive mood expresses wishes, demands, commands, proposals, and hypothetical situations.

The subjunctive mood is a verb form used to refer to a hypothetical scenario to express a wish, emotion, or possibility of something happening that has not yet occurred.

If Paris Were My Lover suggests that Paris is not actually the author’s lover but is being imagined as a lover – indicated by the word ‘if’ which introduces a conditional clause. For example, on the condition that, or supposed that, or in the event that … Paris would be my lover.

If Paris Was My Lover, using the singular verb ‘was’, would imply that this was a real possibility in the past or that the author is uncertain about whether it was true. In my case – as the author – my intention was that it is imagined, not real. It is my wish that Paris would be my lover.

Paris is My Lover, using the singular ‘is’ and not the plural ‘are’ expresses something that is categorically true, and happening in the present time – right now. This was not my intention while writing the novel.

Paris is a singular city – he, she, or it is single. A single lady – so, as Beyoncé wrote and sang in 2008: “I cried my tears, gave ya three good years, you can’t be mad at me, ‘cause if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it, if you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it … whoa-oh-oh …”

Now that I reflect after the book’s publication, Beyoncé’s song Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)could be the sub-plot, the sub-text, the theme song of my novel If Paris Were My Lover.

My book presents a hypothetical, poetic imagining of Paris as a lover. Therefore, If Paris Were My Lover is grammatically correct – despite Paris being single. Not only is it grammatically correct; it is stylistically fitting.

Have you missed the other 34 episodes? Find them in the “PARIS as I write” tab of this “The Stories in You and Me” Substack.

MY PARIS WEBSITE AND ALL THINGS PARISIAN

MY PARIS BLOGS

Photographer: Martina Nicolls

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