Breakdown of Pour féroce que soit l'ours polaire, il évite le camp.
être
to be
il
he
que
that (introducing a clause)
éviter
to avoid
Questions & Answers about Pour féroce que soit l'ours polaire, il évite le camp.
Why does the sentence start with Pour to mean "However"?
Why is the verb soit placed before the subject l'ours polaire?
This is a stylistic inversion. In the pour ... que structure, if the subject is a noun (like l'ours polaire), French writers often place the subjunctive verb before the noun because it sounds more elegant. You could technically say pour féroce que l'ours polaire soit, but the inverted version is highly typical for this formal structure.
Why do we use the subjunctive soit instead of the indicative est here?
I usually see "polar bear" translated as ours blanc. Is ours polaire common?