Breakdown of Nous prenons les allumettes de crainte qu'il se brûle.
il
he
nous
we / us (object pronoun)
prendre
to have (a meal/drink) / to take
se brûler
to burn oneself
l'allumette
the match (f)
de crainte que
for fear that
Questions & Answers about Nous prenons les allumettes de crainte qu'il se brûle.
Why is the subjunctive used in this sentence?
The conjunction de crainte que expresses fear or apprehension that something might happen. In French, expressions of fear always trigger the subjunctive mood in the clause that follows, which is why we use the subjunctive form se brûle.
How can I tell if brûle is in the subjunctive here? It looks exactly like the normal present tense.
You are right to notice that! For regular -er verbs like se brûler, the subjunctive form for je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles is identical to the present indicative. You can only tell it is the subjunctive because the grammatical rule for de crainte que demands it.
I have sometimes seen an extra ne after de crainte que. Why isn't there one here?
In formal, written French, you will often see a ne explétif added after expressions of fear, making it de crainte qu'il ne se brûle. This ne is purely stylistic and does not make the sentence negative. Because it is completely optional, it is usually dropped in everyday spoken French, just like in this sentence.
Could we use the infinitive form de crainte de se brûler instead?
Not in this sentence, because there is a change of subject. The first subject is Nous (we take the matches) and the second is il (he might burn himself). You only use de crainte de followed by an infinitive when the subject is the exact same in both halves of the sentence.
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