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Ma mère a déjà refusé cette suggestion, même si elle était très bonne.

Ma mère a déjà refusé cette suggestion, même si elle était très bonne.
My mother has already refused this suggestion, even if it was very good.
From Lesson 439:Subjunctive after a past tense·French

Questions & Answers about Ma mère a déjà refusé cette suggestion, même si elle était très bonne.

Why doesn't même si trigger the subjunctive here?
This is a common trap! While phrases with similar meanings like bien que and quoique (although / even though) require the subjunctive, même si always takes the indicative. Here, it is followed by the imperfect indicative était.
Since this lesson is about the past subjunctive, how would this sentence look if we used a subjunctive trigger like bien que instead?
Great question! If you replaced même si with bien que, you would need the subjunctive. Following the modern sequence of tenses, you would say bien qu'elle ait été très bonne (using the past subjunctive to show the state was in the past) or bien qu'elle soit très bonne (using the present subjunctive if the suggestion is still considered good now).
Why is était in the imperfect tense rather than the passé composé?
The passé composé (a refusé) is used for the specific, completed event of refusing. The imperfect (était) describes an ongoing state or background context in the past: the inherent quality of the suggestion being good.
Why is déjà placed exactly where it is?
Short, common adverbs like déjà (already), souvent (often), and beaucoup (a lot) generally go between the auxiliary verb (a) and the past participle (refusé) in compound tenses.

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