Breakdown of Ce châtiment est terrible, qu'il périsse !
être
to be
il
he
ce
this (before a noun)
terrible
terrible
que
let / may (third-person command)
périr
to perish
le châtiment
the punishment (severe or formal)
Questions & Answers about Ce châtiment est terrible, qu'il périsse !
Why does this sentence use périsse instead of the regular present tense périt?
Does 'let him perish' mean someone is asking for permission here?
Not at all! While 'let him' in English can sometimes be a request for permission, here it is used as a strong decree or curse, similar to 'may he perish!'. In French, starting an independent clause with que and the subjunctive is a classic way to express a royal command, a curse, or an absolute wish.
How do we form this subjunctive form for the verb périr?
Périr (to perish) is a regular -ir verb. To find its subjunctive stem, take the present tense nous form (nous périssons) and drop the -ons. This gives you the stem périss-. Then, add the regular subjunctive ending for il, which is -e, resulting in qu'il périsse.
The word châtiment feels formal. Is there a trick to remembering its meaning?
Yes! The circumflex accent over the â often replaces an 's' that was dropped from Old French over the centuries. If you imagine an 's' after the 'a', châtiment looks like 'chastiment', which is directly related to the English words 'chastise' and 'chastisement' (meaning punishment). This is a highly reliable trick for decoding advanced French vocabulary.
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