Breakdown of Faça o que fizer, ele não vai alcançar o triunfo.
não
not / no
ele
he
o que
what
ir
to go
fazer
to do
alcançar
to achieve
o triunfo
the triumph
Questions & Answers about Faça o que fizer, ele não vai alcançar o triunfo.
Why are there two different forms of the verb fazer (faça and fizer) in the first clause?
This is the core formula for this type of concessive expression. The first verb (faça) is in the present subjunctive, and the repeated second verb (fizer) is in the future subjunctive. Together with the relative words o que, this creates the meaning of 'whatever [subject] does'.
Can I use this same 'present subjunctive + o que + future subjunctive' pattern with other verbs?
How do we know 'Faça o que fizer' means 'Whatever HE does' if the word 'ele' isn't there?
The subject is implied by the main clause that follows (ele não vai...). Because the verbs faça and fizer are conjugated in the third-person singular, they perfectly match the ele of the main sentence. You could say Faça ele o que fizer for extra emphasis, but the pronoun is usually dropped here to sound more natural.
Why does the second half use 'vai alcançar' instead of the simple future tense 'alcançará'?
Both are grammatically correct and mean the exact same thing. However, using the present tense of ir (here as vai) plus the infinitive (alcançar) is much more natural and common in everyday spoken and written Portuguese than the simple future tense (alcançará).
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