Breakdown of Soit qu'il ait peur, soit que ce soit la paresse, il refuse.
être
to be
il
he
ce
it / this (with être)
avoir peur
to be afraid
refuser
to refuse
soit que
whether it is because
la paresse
the laziness
Questions & Answers about Soit qu'il ait peur, soit que ce soit la paresse, il refuse.
Why are ait and soit in the subjunctive here?
The structure soit que... soit que... (whether... or...) sets up alternative conditions or hypotheses. Because these are possibilities rather than established facts, they trigger the subjunctive mood. That is why we use ait (from avoir) and soit (from être).
Could I say ou que ce soit la paresse for the second part instead?
Yes! You can use either soit que... soit que... or soit que... ou que.... Both mean "whether... or..." and both require the subjunctive in both of the alternative clauses.
Why does the second part use ce soit instead of il soit?
This is the subjunctive version of the c'est vs. il est rule. Because paresse is a noun preceded by a determiner (la), you must use ce rather than il to say "it is". In the subjunctive mood, c'est la paresse simply becomes ce soit la paresse.
The English translation includes the word "because". Is that implied by soit que?
Yes, contextually. While soit que... soit que... literally means "whether [A] or [B]", it is frequently used to propose alternative reasons for an action. In English, we naturally add "because" to make it sound natural ("whether it is because he is afraid or..."), but French doesn't need to explicitly add parce que here.
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