Formulaic subjunctives
Apprentissage rapide
The formulaic subjunctive preserves archaic optative and concessive bare verb forms in invariant fossilized idioms.
À retenir
- Master optative formulas expressing wishes, blessings, and curses: Heaven forbid, Far be it from me, and God save the King.
- Master concessive formulas introducing unyielding reality: Be that as it may, Come what may, and Cost what it may.
- Maintain invariant bare verb morphology, resisting third-person singular -s inflections or tense shifts.
Exemples
- 1Be that as it may, the governing council resolved to terminate all funding for the unviable infrastructure project.
- 2Suffice it to say that the international peace negotiations ended in complete acrimony and recrimination.
Piège courant à éviter
Modernizing formulaic subjunctives by inflecting the verb with -s, writing Heaven forbids or Truth be told becomes Truth is told.
Approfondir
La règle
Fossilized subjunctives
The formulaic subjunctive represents the preservation of archaic Old and Middle English optative and concessive moods within frozen, idiomatic collocations in modern English. Unlike the productive mandative subjunctive (which freely generates subordinate clauses following verbs of demand), formulaic subjunctives are fossilized constructions whose syntactic components are fixed and cannot be altered or modernized.
The formulas
Crucial categories include:
(1) Concessive formulas: Be that as it may (acknowledging a counterpoint before dismissing its relevance); Come what may (expressing determination regardless of future adversity); Suffice it to say (signaling intentional brevity);
(2) Optative formulas of blessing, wish, or curse: Heaven forbid that such a tragedy recur; God bless you; Long live the Republic; Perish the thought;
(3) Formal idiomatic parentheticals: Far be it from me to criticize the committee, but...; As it were (functioning as a metaphorical qualifier); If need be (if necessity arises).
Always the base form
In all these formulas, the verb maintains its invariant bare base form regardless of subject number.
Anatomie de la phrase
Des phrases de cette leçon, découpées dans l'ordre qu'exige l'anglais.
Mise en reliefBe that as it may,Sujetthe governing councilVerberesolvedObjetto terminate all funding for the unviable infrastructure project.
SujetThe explorerVerbevowedObjetto reach the geographical South Pole before winter descended,Mise en reliefcome what may.
SujetThe ambassadorVerbefunctioned,Mise en reliefas it were,Attributas an invisible bridge between the two hostile superpower administrations.
Guide visuel
How to read this C2 topic
At C2, grammar manages nuance: responsibility, irony, concession, distance, rhythm, and dense argument.
1. Read the writer's stance
Advanced forms may signal caution, skepticism, authority, or deliberate distance.
The proposal would appear to be flawed.
2. Recover what is omitted
Ellipsis and compression expect the reader to rebuild missing grammar.
If necessary, revise the clause.
3. Match form to discourse
The most sophisticated option is the one that fits purpose and register.
Little did they realize what followed.
Decision path before answering
Use these checks before choosing between close options.
- 1Mark the subject, main verb, object, and any connector.
- 2Underline the time expression or discourse clue.
- 3Reject any option with the wrong agreement, tense, article, pronoun case, or word order.
- 4Read the whole sentence once more for naturalness and register.
Contrasts that often decide the answer
Event or background
Simple forms move events forward; continuous forms show an action in progress.
I left while she was talking.
Fact or stance
Modals, hedges, and reporting structures show how certain or responsible the speaker sounds.
This may indicate a problem.
Clause or compressed phrase
Advanced writing often compresses full clauses into participle, noun, or prepositional phrases.
Having reviewed the data, we revised the plan.
Exemples
- 1Be that as it may, the governing council resolved to terminate all funding for the unviable infrastructure project.
- 2Suffice it to say that the international peace negotiations ended in complete acrimony and recrimination.
- 3The explorer vowed to reach the geographical South Pole before winter descended, come what may.
- 4Far be it from me to challenge the clinical findings of such eminent neurologists, but certain anomalies remain.
- 5Heaven forbid that an automated missile early-warning system should experience a catastrophic software glitch.
- 6The ambassador functioned, as it were, as an invisible bridge between the two hostile superpower administrations.
- 7The reserve battalions are prepared to deploy to the border zone on forty-eight hours' notice, if need be.
- 8Perish the thought that our distinguished academic institution should compromise its rigorous standards of scholarship.
- 9Long live the sovereign, whose steadfast leadership guided the nation through prolonged geopolitical turmoil.
Exceptions
These expressions are strictly fixed idioms; lexical substitution destroys their grammatical legitimacy (One cannot say Earth forbid or Short live the King).
Erreurs fréquentes
Third-person -s in a formula
Erreur
Heaven forbids
Correct
Heaven forbid
Suffices it to say
Erreur
Suffices it to say
Correct
Suffice it to say
Changing a fixed word order
Erreur
Far it be from me
Correct
Far be it from me
Récap
L'essentiel de la leçon sur une carte, avant de te tester.
À retenir
- Master optative formulas expressing wishes, blessings, and curses: Heaven forbid, Far be it from me, and God save the King.
- Master concessive formulas introducing unyielding reality: Be that as it may, Come what may, and Cost what it may.
- Maintain invariant bare verb morphology, resisting third-person singular -s inflections or tense shifts.
Erreurs fréquentes
Erreur: Heaven forbids
Correct: Heaven forbidErreur: Suffices it to say
Correct: Suffice it to sayErreur: Far it be from me
Correct: Far be it from me
Teste-toi
Incorporate three authentic formulaic subjunctives into an elevated formal speech or diplomatic argument.
Points de grammaire associés
Poursuivez votre apprentissage avec d'autres notions de ce niveau.