Formulaic subjunctives
Правило
The formulaic subjunctive preserves archaic optative and concessive bare verb forms in invariant fossilized idioms.
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. 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). In all these formulas, the verb maintains its invariant bare base form regardless of subject number.
Запомни
- 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.
Частая ошибка, которой стоит избегать
Modernizing formulaic subjunctives by inflecting the verb with -s, writing Heaven forbids or Truth be told becomes Truth is told.
Guía visual
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.
Примеры
- 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.
Исключения
These expressions are strictly fixed idioms; lexical substitution destroys their grammatical legitimacy (One cannot say Earth forbid or Short live the King).
Частые ошибки
Inflecting the verb for third-person singular in formulaic expressions: writing Heaven forbids instead of Heaven forbid, or Suffices it to say instead of Suffice it to say. Another error is changing word order in Far be it from me to Far it be from me.
Проверь себя
Incorporate three authentic formulaic subjunctives into an elevated formal speech or diplomatic argument.
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