French Language > Constructions

French Concessions
Giving an Inch and Taking a Mile

One does not think of the French as people who easily make concessions. Even for the French, however, there is no shame in making grammatical concessions.

The following English sentences begin with what are called “concessive clauses,” introduced by concessive conjunctions:

• Although the Smiths are quite wealthy, they live in a hovel.
• Although we fight all the time, we really love each other.
• Even though God is merciful, he is just.

In this kind of construction you concede a point to the “other side” in the subordinate clause (introduced by “although” or “though”), but continue to assert your major claim in the main clause. It is an effective rhetorical device, because it makes it seem that you have considered all the sides of a question, including the adverse evidence, and nonetheless persist in thinking you are justified in claiming what you do.

French has its concessive conjunctions and clauses (discussed in part III of this file). It also has some other concessive constructions, which are described or noted below.

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I. Concessive Pour (être [adjectif])

Consider the following:

• Pour être beau, il n’en est pas moins intelligent. (Although he is handsome, he is nonetheless intelligent.)
• Pour être catholiques, nous acceptons néanmoins les conclusions de la science moderne. (Although we are Catholics, we nonetheless accept the conclusions of modern science.)
• Pour avoir été critiquée, cette pièce n’en contient pas moins de réelles beautés. (Although it has been criticized, this play nonetheless contains real beauties.)

Note how the main clause has a corresponding negative expression: n’en…pas moins or néanmoins.

Now, there is a somewhat analogous construction in English; consider the sentence “For all his big talk [=In spite of his big talk], he seems to be backing down.” If you wished, you could re-conceive the three initial French examples this way:

• “For all his being handsome…”
• “For all our being Catholic/Catholics…”
• “For all its having been criticized…”

Here are some famous instances of the construction from literature. Feel free to memorize them!

Ah! pour être Romain, je n’en suis pas moins homme.
Ah, although I am a Roman, I am nonetheless a man!Sertorius, in the play of the same name by Pierre Corneille

Ah! pour être dévot, je n’en suis pas moins homme.
Ah, although I am pious, I am nonetheless a man! Tartuffe, in the play of the same name by Molière

Ah! pour être petit, je n’en suis pas moins homme.
Ah, although I am short, I am nonetheless a man! The midget Hans in Tod Brownings Freaks (1932)

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II. Concessive Si/”If” = “Although”

The French are fond of using the conditional conjunction si as if it had the force of “although” or “while.”

Consider the following:

• Si les deux hommes étaient des amis de longue date, ils se découvraient maintenant des rivaux. (Although the two men had been friends for a long time, they were now discovering themselves to be rivals.)
• Si la théorie a été contestée, elle n’en reste pas moins très largement acceptée. (Although/While the theory has been contested, it remains nonetheless very widely accepted.)
• Si cette démarche peut surprendre, elle découle néanmoins de la logique de la situation. (Although/While/Whereas this step may be surprising, it nonetheless flows from the logic of the situation.)

See also section V below on Même si and Quand (bien) (même).

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III. The Concessive…Adjective

Both the above constructions can, in the right circumstances, be reduced to a single adjective. The following three sentences are equivalent:

• Pour être catholiques, nous acceptons néanmoins les conclusions de la science moderne.
• Si nous sommes catholiques, nous acceptons néanmoins les conclusions de la science moderne.
• Catholiques, nous acceptons néanmoins les conclusions de la science moderne.

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IV. Concessive Conjunctions Bien que, Quoique, Encore que

All three conjunctions can be translated as “although.” In modern French they are followed by a verb in the subjunctive.

• Bien que les Smith soient riches, ils habitent un taudis. (Although the Smiths are rich, they live in a hovel.)
• Quoique nous nous querellions sans cesse, au fond nous nous sommes très attachés. (Although we fight all the time, we really love each other.)
• Le professeur est bien content de ses élèves, encore qu‘il dise le contraire. (The teacher is very pleased with his pupils, even though he says the opposite..)

Note that the concessive clause in the first sentence (for which the verb is “to be”) can be reduced to just the conjunction and adjective:

Bien que riches (Quoique riches), les Smiths habitent un taudis.

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V. “However” Expressions with the Subjunctive

Consider the following examples:

• Pour intelligent qu’il soit, Georges n’en est pas moins inculte. (However intelligent he is/may be, George is nonetheless uncultivated.)
• Pour beau que vous soyez, je ne sortirai pas avec vous. (However good-looking you are/may be, I won’t go out with you.)
• Pour prévoyants que soient vos parents, ils ont permis à votre sœur de se marier très jeune. (However thoughtful your parents are/may be, they let your sister get married very young.)

The pour in this construction ends up functioning almost as an adverb (the English equivalent “however” definitely is an adverb). To add to this zaniness, a total of four other words can be substituted for the pour:

tout
aussi
si
quelque

The meaning stays exactly the same! That is,

…all mean: “However intelligent he is/may be.”

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VI. Concessive Même si and Quand (Bien) (Même)

A conditional clause beginning with “Even if” can be considered a kind of concession – precisely, a conditional kind of concession, since the situation may not arise at all; but if it does (or did)…the main clause will (would) still stand firm.

“Even if what you say were true, I would still oppose this plan.”

The same is true of French sentences beginning Même si. I give you the same sentence in the form of the three basic types of conditional sentences (simple hypothesis, present contrary-to-fact, past contrary-to-fact):

Now, the second sentence above, being an example of what I call the second type of conditional sentence, has a verb in the imperfect indicative (menaçais) in the subordinate clause, and present conditional (plierais) in the main clause.

However, there is an alternative formulation for the subordinate clause of this kind of sentence. You will find it abundantly in older French texts (17th, 18th, and 19th centuries), but it also shows up in the 20th century (and, I suppose, the 21st).

The meaning remains exactly the same: “Even if you / threatened / were to threaten / me with death, I would not fold.” (A literal translation, “When you would threaten me,” would not do at all.)

Particularly in the 20th century, the Quand is often reinforced by bien, même, or both together:

Quand bien même tu me menacerais de mort, je ne plierais pas.

Substitution 1 in Context

Quand j’aurais cent bouches, et dans chacune cent langues, je ne pourrais vous conter toutes les actions généreuses qu’il a faites.
Even if I had a hundred mouths, and in each one a hundred tongues, I could not recount to you all the generous actions he has done.François Pétis de la Croix, Les mille et un jours

 

Quand bien même j’aurais besoin ou envie d’un homme qui serait uniquement à moi, tout me conseille de modérer mes ardeurs et, au contraire, d’être uniquement à lui.
Even if I needed or wanted a man who belonged only to me, everything counsels me to moderate my passions and, on the contrary, to belong only to him. Virginie Despentes, King Kong Théorie (2006)

A further substitution is the following:

Yet another, and still more elegant, refinement:

One last transformation (and the weirdest of all) is possible. It is used almost exclusively with the verbs être and devoir. Let us take the following as our initial sentence:

Même si elle était ma mère, je ne l’écouterais pas (Even if she were my mother, I wouldn’t listen to her).

Here are more examples of this very literary construction:

• J’aimerais le voir, ne fût-ce qu’un instant. (I should like to see him, if [it were] only for a moment.)
• Fût-il le seul homme vivant au monde, je ne l’épouserais pas. (Even if he were the only man living in the world, I would not wed him.)
• Je dirai¹ ce que je crois être la vérité, dût-on me couper la tête. (I will say what I believe to be the truth, even if you were to cut off my head.)
• Je dirai ce que je crois être la vérité, dussé-je² payer de ma vie! (I will say what I believe to be the truth, even if I were to pay for it with my life!)

Substitution 4 in Context:

Dussé-je encore attendre cent ans, je ne bougerai pas d’ici !
Even if I were³ to wait a hundred years more, I will not budge from here! Sophie Rostopchine, Comtesse de Ségur, “Le bon petit Henri”

Dansez pour moi, Salomé, et je vous donnerai tout ce que vous me demanderez, fût-ce la moitié de mon royaume.
Dance for me, Salome, and I will give you whatever you ask of me, were it the half of my kingdom! Hérode, in the original French version of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé

Eussé-je mille raisons de me croire dans mon droit, il suffit d’un rien pour me troubler.
Even if I had a thousand reasons to think myself in the right, a trifle suffices to disturb me. François Mauriac, Le Nœud de vipères

1. The rule says a present conditional should go here, but indicative urgency takes over instead![↩]
2. The acute accent is (arbitrarily) placed over the e of dusse, so as to avoid two schwa sounds in succession.[↩]
3. In this case, Dussé-je could be translated “Even if I had to.”[↩]

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