Once you've mastered aunque, Spanish opens up a whole second tier of concessive conjunctions: por más que, por mucho que, por poco que, así (concessive), siquiera and ni siquiera. These aren't simple synonyms — each carries a different rhetorical flavour, takes a different mood, and lives in a different register. A C1 speaker who reaches only for aunque sounds noticeably narrower than a native. This page maps the territory.
The "por + quantifier + que" family
The most productive concessive pattern at this level is por + quantifier + que + subjunctive. The quantifier varies (más, mucho, poco, plus adjective/adverb slots like por listo que sea), but the underlying logic is one and the same: "no matter how much/little X, Y."
Por más que
Means "no matter how much" or "however much." Used with subjunctive when looking forward or staying hypothetical, with indicative when reporting a concrete, repeated fact.
Por más que se lo expliques, no lo va a entender.
No matter how much you explain it to him, he isn't going to understand.
Por más que insistió, no le abrieron la puerta.
However much he insisted, they didn't open the door for him.
The indicative insistió here is a real, completed insistence; the subjunctive expliques is open-ended explaining that may or may not happen. The same logic that governs aunque governs this whole family — but native speakers reach for por más que when they want to add an extra layer of "no matter how hard you try."
Por mucho que
A near-synonym of por más que, slightly more colloquial and slightly more emphatic on quantity (literally "by much that"). Same mood rules.
Por mucho que corras, no llegarás a tiempo.
However much you run, you won't get there on time.
Por mucho que me lo jures, no te creo.
No matter how much you swear it to me, I don't believe you.
The two are interchangeable in most contexts; por más que sounds a hair more literary, por mucho que a hair more spoken.
Por poco que
This one flips the polarity: "however little." It almost always takes the subjunctive, and it's a high-leverage construction because there's no good single-word English equivalent — English has to paraphrase as "even a little bit of."
Por poco que estudies, aprobarás el examen.
As long as you study even a little, you'll pass the exam.
Por poco que te fijes, lo verás enseguida.
If you pay even a little attention, you'll see it right away.
Notice how por poco que slides toward a conditional reading ("if you do even a little"). That's the natural drift — minimal-quantity concession is functionally close to a sufficient condition.
Por + adjective/adverb + que
The slot between por and que doesn't have to be a quantifier. Spanish freely inserts adjectives and adverbs, producing constructions like por listo que sea ("however clever he may be"), por difícil que parezca ("however difficult it may seem"), por lejos que esté ("however far away it is").
Por listo que se crea, lo van a pillar.
However clever he thinks he is, they're going to catch him.
Por difícil que parezca, hay una solución.
However difficult it may seem, there is a solution.
Por caro que sea, lo voy a comprar.
However expensive it is, I'm going to buy it.
This pattern is enormously productive in formal writing — editorials, essays, academic prose. The mood is almost always subjunctive because the concession is being raised hypothetically.
Así as a concessive (literary/informal extreme)
Así meaning "even if" / "no matter if" is one of Spanish's stranger constructions. It sits at two opposite registers: high literary on one end, very colloquial on the other. It always takes the subjunctive, and the clause it heads expresses an extreme hypothetical.
No firmaré ese contrato, así me ofrezcan el doble.
I won't sign that contract, even if they offer me double.
No pienso pedirle perdón, así me cueste la amistad.
I have no intention of apologising to him, even if it costs me the friendship.
The defining feature: así + subjunctive raises an extreme stake — the speaker is signalling that even the most extreme version of the consequence won't change their position. It is more common in Latin American speech; in everyday Peninsular Spanish, aunque would be the default.
Siquiera and ni siquiera
These two look similar but do almost opposite work. Both involve the idea of "even," but they pull in different directions.
Ni siquiera = "not even"
The straightforward one. Ni siquiera negates and intensifies — "not even X." It takes indicative because it's asserting a fact.
Ni siquiera me saludó al entrar.
He didn't even say hello to me when he came in.
No tengo tiempo ni siquiera para comer.
I don't even have time to eat.
Siquiera = "at least" / "even if only"
Without the ni, siquiera is concessive in a softer way: it marks a minimum. Often used in requests and wishes. It usually takes subjunctive when in concessive/wish position, indicative in flat factual contexts.
Llámame siquiera para decirme que estás bien.
Call me at least just to tell me you're all right.
Que nos dejen siquiera despedirnos.
Let them at least let us say goodbye.
Siquiera podrías haber avisado.
You could at least have warned us.
This siquiera is a register marker — it's slightly elevated, the kind of word you'd expect in a thoughtful letter or a measured complaint rather than a shouted argument.
Comparison with English
English speakers running into this family hit several specific snags. English "however much" and "no matter how much" are essentially one construction in two registers; Spanish has three (por más que, por mucho que, aunque mucho) and they're not freely interchangeable. English has no clean equivalent of por poco que (you have to paraphrase as "even if you only barely…"). And English "even if" overloads what Spanish distributes across aunque + subj, así + subj, and por más que + subj, each with its own emphasis.
The mood choice in this whole family is also more rigid than learners expect. With aunque, indicative vs subjunctive carries real meaning (factual vs hypothetical). With por más que and por mucho que, the same logic applies but the subjunctive is strongly preferred — using indicative requires a clearly completed, repeated event. With así (concessive) and por poco que, it's effectively always subjunctive.
Concessive chains: stacking them
At C1, native speakers freely combine these. You'll hear chains like:
Por más que insista y por mucho que llore, no le voy a comprar otro móvil.
However much she insists and however much she cries, I'm not going to buy her another phone.
Aunque me lo pida de rodillas y por más razones que tenga, mi respuesta es no.
Even if he begs me on his knees and however many reasons he has, my answer is no.
The mood stays subjunctive throughout the chain — once you've established the hypothetical frame, every following concessive clause inherits it. This is one of the trickiest things to coordinate as a learner: don't slip into indicative on the second or third clause.
Common mistakes
❌ Por más que estudia, no aprende.
Wrong reading for the intended sense — with indicative, this only works as 'however much he does study (right now)'. For the generalisation 'no matter how much he studies' you need the subjunctive.
✅ Por más que estudie, no aprende.
No matter how much he studies, he doesn't learn.
❌ Así me lo pidas, no voy.
Acceptable in some Latin American varieties, but in Peninsular Spanish it sounds off in casual speech.
✅ Aunque me lo pidas, no voy.
Even if you ask me, I'm not going. The neutral Peninsular default.
❌ Por poco que estudias, aprobarás.
Incorrect — por poco que requires subjunctive almost without exception.
✅ Por poco que estudies, aprobarás.
If you study even a little, you'll pass.
❌ Ni siquiera me saludara.
Incorrect — ni siquiera asserts a fact and takes indicative.
✅ Ni siquiera me saludó.
He didn't even say hello to me.
❌ Por mucho que insistas y aunque lloras, no cederé.
Inconsistent — once the hypothetical frame is set with subjunctive, the second clause should stay subjunctive too.
✅ Por mucho que insistas y aunque llores, no cederé.
However much you insist and even if you cry, I won't give in.
Key takeaways
The por + quantifier + que + subjunctive family is the workhorse of advanced concession — productive, expressive, and a marker of fluent register. Así concessive is a literary/rhetorical option, common in writing and elevated speech but used cautiously in casual Peninsular conversation. Siquiera (without ni) is the minimum-asking concession, ni siquiera the "not even" intensifier. Above all: once you set up a concessive subjunctive frame, hold it across coordinated clauses. The single tell of a C1-level Spanish speaker is consistent mood through a long concessive chain.
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- Aunque en todos los tiemposB2 — Aunque llueve vs aunque llueva, aunque sabía vs aunque supiera — how the indicative/subjunctive choice with aunque tracks the speaker's commitment to the truth of the concessive clause.
- Cadenas concesivas: aunque…por más que…C1 — Chaining multiple concessive markers together for rhetorical effect — aunque, aun así, a pesar de eso, por más que, con todo — sequenced for argument, debate, and persuasive prose.
- Subjuntivo de concesión: aunque + subjuntivoB2 — Aunque takes subjunctive when the speaker treats the concession as hypothetical, unknown, or already-known-but-de-emphasised, and indicative when presenting it as a verified fact. Por más que, por mucho que and a pesar de que follow related patterns.
- Expresiones fijas con subjuntivoB2 — Lexicalized subjunctive expressions — pase lo que pase, sea quien sea, que yo sepa, cueste lo que cueste — frozen formulas that don't conjugate creatively.
- Subjuntivo duplicado: sea lo que sea, vaya donde vayaB2 — The verb-relative-verb pattern (sea lo que sea, pase lo que pase, vaya donde vaya) is one of Spanish's most distinctive idiomatic structures — a kind of generalised concession that has no clean English equivalent.
- Correlativas: cuanto más X, más YB2 — Spanish's correlative comparative construction — cuanto más X, más Y — is the equivalent of English 'the more X, the more Y', but with its own agreement rules, mood patterns, and idiomatic variants.