Breakdown of J'ai acheté une table ronde de peur que le bébé se blesse.
je
I
une
a / an (feminine)
la table
the table
avoir
to have
acheter
to buy
le bébé
the baby
rond
round
se blesser
to hurt oneself
de peur que
for fear that
Questions & Answers about J'ai acheté une table ronde de peur que le bébé se blesse.
Why doesn't the second half of the sentence use a future or conditional tense for an event that only might happen?
The conjunction de peur que (for fear that) expresses a subjective avoidance or emotion, which always triggers the subjunctive mood in French. Even though the baby getting hurt is a potential future event, you are required to use the present subjunctive se blesse.
I thought expressions like de peur que needed an extra ne before the verb. Is it missing here?
You are thinking of the ne explétif, a stylistic, non-negative ne often added after expressions of fear (meaning you will sometimes see de peur que le bébé ne se blesse). However, this extra ne is completely optional and highly formal. In everyday French, it is usually dropped, just as it is in this sentence.
se blesse looks exactly like the normal present tense. How do we know it is in the subjunctive?
For regular -er verbs like se blesser, the present indicative and present subjunctive share the exact same spelling for the je, tu, il/elle/on, and ils/elles conjugations. We only know it is subjunctive in this sentence because the conjunction de peur que grammatically forces it to be.
Why do we need the reflexive pronoun se before blesse?
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