"  If you were, similarly, to tell me that ""If I was a rich man"" were the colloquial usage in spoken English, rather than ""if I were a rich man"", despite grammar, etc., I would be similarly flummoxed as to how to respond.  I imagine, by the way, if we were having this conversation in French, and you were to insist that ""Le France"" were the common usage, not ""La France"", that would better lend itself to a computer-based ""check"" of your assertion, and what basis there may be for it other than POV."