Idiomatic Subjunctive Constructions

By B2 you have learned to predict the subjunctive from its triggers: a verb of desire, a conjunction like embora, an impersonal expression like é possível que. But Brazilian Portuguese also has a layer of fossilized expressions where the subjunctive is baked into a fixed phrase. These don't follow from the rules — they are the rule, frozen in place. Some of them are among the most common things a Brazilian says all day. This page covers the ones you must recognize and the one you absolutely must be able to produce.

The key mental shift: stop trying to parse these word by word. Treat them as units. The subjunctive inside them is a relic — often preserving an older main-clause use of the mood that standard grammar otherwise abandoned. Learn the whole phrase, learn what it means, and learn the slot where your own verb goes.

Tomara que — the everyday "I hope" (and "fingers crossed")

This is the single most useful item on the page. Tomara que + present subjunctive means "I hope that," and it is the casual, conversational way Brazilians express hope. Where an English speaker says "I hope so," "let's hope," or "fingers crossed," a Brazilian reaches for tomara.

That last example is crucial: tomara can stand completely alone as a one-word reply, exactly like English "fingers crossed!" or "let's hope so!" No que, no verb — just the bare word.

Etymologically, tomara is the old pluperfect indicative of tomar ("I had taken"), which drifted into an optative ("would that I had..."). That history is dead to modern speakers — nobody hears "taking" in it. But the fossil still demands the present subjunctive in its clause, which is why you say venha, not vem.

Quem dera — "if only" / "I wish"

Quem dera expresses a wish that is contrary to reality or hard to attain — "if only," "I wish." Because the wish is unreal, it characteristically takes the imperfect subjunctive (for present/general wishes) or the pluperfect for past ones.

Like tomara, quem dera can stand alone: — Você ganhou na loteria? — Quem dera! ("— Did you win the lottery? — I wish!"). The literal pieces (quem = who, dera = old pluperfect of dar) mean nothing to a modern ear; the whole phrase is simply "if only." Note the contrast with tomara: tomara hopes for something still possible (present subjunctive), while quem dera sighs over something unlikely or already lost (imperfect/pluperfect subjunctive).

Faça chuva ou faça sol — "rain or shine"

A family of expressions uses a doubled subjunctive in an "X or X" frame to mean "no matter what / whatever the case." Faça chuva ou faça sol literally is "let it make rain or let it make sun" = "rain or shine."

The same skeleton produces other idioms:

• Custe o que custar — "whatever the cost / no matter what." (custar, to cost)
• Doa a quem doer — "no matter who it hurts / let the chips fall where they may." (doer, to hurt)
• Seja como for — "be that as it may / however it turns out."

The structure here is an ancient concessive / indefinite use of the subjunctive: "let it be whatever it may be." English builds the same idea with "-ever" words (whatever, however, whoever); Portuguese builds it by putting the verb in the subjunctive twice around a relative word. Once you see the pattern — [subjunctive] + relative + [subjunctive] — these stop looking random.

Seja qual for — "whatever / whichever it is"

Seja qual for ("whatever it may be," "whichever it is") is the productive workhorse of this concessive family, and you will use it far more than the fixed idioms above because you can slot a noun into it.

Notice the split tenses inside it: seja (present subjunctive of ser) plus for (future subjunctive of ser). This pairing — present subjunctive of the verb you're emphasizing plus the future subjunctive for — recurs across the concessive idioms (seja como for, seja quem for, seja onde for). It looks tangled, but it's a single template you can memorize whole.

Why the subjunctive survives here

In standard modern Portuguese, the subjunctive almost never appears in a true main clause — it normally needs a trigger in a clause above it. These idioms are the exceptions. They preserve uses the language otherwise discarded:

• Optative (expressing a wish): tomara, quem dera — "would that...!"
• Concessive/indefinite: seja qual for, custe o que custar — "let it be whatever..."

Recognizing them as survivals explains why they "break the rules": they're older than the rules. You can't derive tomara que venha from the trigger system, because tomara isn't a trigger — it's a fossilized verb form that happens to govern a subjunctive the way it always has. Filing these under "idioms to memorize" rather than "patterns to derive" will save you a lot of confusion.

Common Mistakes

English speakers default to the indicative because "I hope he comes" uses a plain present in English. But tomara que is a hard subjunctive trigger — always venha.

Tomara is frozen. You never say eu tomara or nós tomáramos in this sense — there is no "I hope" / "we hope" agreement here. The whole phrase is invariable.

The wish is contrary to fact, so it needs soubesse (imperfect subjunctive), not sei. Mixing this up is the most common quem dera error.

These concessive idioms are frozen in the subjunctive. Swapping in the indicative (custa o que custa) sounds like a malapropism to a native ear.

Key Takeaways

• Tomara que + present subjunctive = "I hope that"; the bare Tomara! = "fingers crossed!" This is the high-frequency, must-produce item.
• Quem dera + imperfect/pluperfect subjunctive = "if only / I wish," for unreal wishes.
• The concessive idioms — faça chuva ou faça sol, custe o que custar, doa a quem doer, seja qual for — use a doubled or framed subjunctive meaning "no matter what."
• All of these are fossils: memorize them whole rather than deriving them. The subjunctive inside them is a survival of older optative and concessive uses, which is exactly why they sit outside the normal trigger system.