I. CONCESSION

I. CONCESSION

_Try_ as we may, we cannot swim to that rock.

_Say_ what he will, he can never convince me.

_Come_ what will, I’ll stand my ground.

_Be_ that as it may, my mind is made up.

II. CONDITION

_Were_ I asked, I could tell all the facts. [If I were asked, etc.]

_Had_ I known, I would have written to you. [If I had known, etc.]

I shall be twenty years old, _come_ Tuesday. [If Tuesday come, etc.]

I will go, _rain_ or _shine_. [If it rain, or if it shine, etc.]

_Be_ he prince or _be_ he pauper, every guest is welcome here.

NOTE. The subjunctive in these concessive and conditional uses is really the same as that in exhortations (§ 278). “_Try_ [_we_] as we may” means literally, “_Let us try_ as hard as we can,” and this has the force of “However hard we try” or “_Although we try_ ever so hard.”

+282.+ After _as if_ (_as though_), the +past subjunctive+ is used.

He looks as if he _were_ about to speak. [NOT: as if he _was_ about to speak.]

I act as if I _were_ crazy. [NOT: as if I _was_ crazy.]

+283.+ The +subjunctive+ may express not what +is+ or +was+, but what +would be+ or +would have been+, the case.

It _were_ safer to travel by day. [It would be safer, etc.]

I _had been_ wiser had I forded the river. [I should have been wiser if I had.]

This construction is old-fashioned. Modern English commonly uses _should_ (or _would_) _be_, _should_ (or _would_) _have been_, instead.

+284.+ The +subjunctive+ is occasionally used after _that_, _lest_, _before_, _until_, etc., in subordinate clauses referring to the future and commonly expressing +purpose+ or +expectation+.

Take heed that he _escape_ not. [Purpose.]

Give him food lest he _perish_. [Purpose.]

Let us tarry until he _come_. [Expectation.]

This construction is confined to poetry and the solemn or formal style. In ordinary language the indicative or a verb-phrase with _may_ is used.

Take heed that he _does_ not _escape_.

Give him food in order that he _may_ not _perish_.

Let us wait till he _comes_.

+285.+ The +past subjunctive+ _had_ is common in _had rather_ and similar phrases.

I _had rather_ wait a day.

You _had better_ leave the room.

He _had as lief_ go as stay.

NOTE. _Had_ in this construction is sometimes condemned as erroneous or inelegant; but the idiom is well-established.

_Might better_, _would better_, and _would rather_ may be used instead of _had better_, etc.; but _would better_ is improper in the first person.

+286.+ The subjunctive forms are often replaced by verb-phrases containing the auxiliaries _may_, _might_, _could_, _would_, _should_.