heron in the river

That water looks like whisky. If it was, the heron's bill will have had VAT on it.

If it were?

Sorry, a missing "had".

As you are such a pedant, the first sentence is in the present tense, the second in the past / past perfect tense - referring to when the picture was taken.
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If it were, I'd be over there now with a few empty bottles and a barrel and be filling them up.

I'm not worried: I was just pointing it out for your benefit, as you are the pedant here.
But I see you've amended it now.

How do you feel about 'then' as a conjunction in place of 'and then'?

Actually is is you who *was the pedant here.

As always, it depends on the context, the sentence and the general style. To answer that , I'd need a specific example.

* I think that 'was', not 'were', is correct here, as in "The wages of sin IS death". Perhaps you could ask your friend.

He's fine with it. I just wondered what the purist thought.

For once I was wrong. It's "you who were the pedant".

The wages of sin IS death because in King James' time, "wages" was a singular noun.

There weren't no-one on a good wage then?