Frozen subjunctive formulae & legal future subjunctive

What it is

Portuguese keeps a set of frozen subjunctive formulas that every Brazilian uses, from casual speech to editorials: custe o que custar ("whatever it takes"), seja como for ("be that as it may"), se Deus quiser ("God willing"). Learn them as chunks: they don't follow the everyday rules, and you can't swap the verb forms around.

The same mood shows up in a very different place: regulations, contracts and public notices, where conditions about the future are written with the future subjunctive (futuro do subjuntivo): Quem descumprir esta norma estará sujeito a multa.

How the formulas are built

Most formulas repeat one verb: first in the present subjunctive, then, after a relative word, in the future subjunctive.

The second verb is always the future subjunctive: custe o que custar, seja como for, venha o que vier. Irregular verbs keep their irregular stems: for (ser), vier (vir), houver (haver), der (dar), quiser (querer).

Other frozen subjunctives:

• Wishes and blessings: Deus queira ("let's hope so"), Deus me livre! ("God forbid!"), (Que) Deus te abençoe, Viva o Brasil!
• Whether … or: seja por falta de tempo, seja por cansaço ("whether from lack of time or from tiredness"); quer queira, quer não ("like it or not").
• A formal connector: haja vista ("in view of"): haja vista os resultados. It is a fixed expression: never haja visto.

The legal future subjunctive

The future subjunctive comes from the third-person plural of the preterite: drop -am and add the endings (–, -es, –, -mos, -des, -em).

Regulations use it after words that open a hypothetical future case:

• quem + future subjunctive: Quem descumprir… ("anyone who breaks…")
• o / a … que: O valor que exceder o limite será devolvido.
• se, quando, sempre que, enquanto, assim que: Se houver empate, vence o candidato mais velho.

Watch the one exception: caso takes the present subjunctive: Caso haja empate… (never caso houver).

When to use them

The formulas fit every register, but they carry weight: custe o que custar shows determination, doa a quem doer shows defiance, seja como for closes a debate. Religious formulas (se Deus quiser, Deus me livre) are everyday speech for believers and non-believers alike.

The legal future subjunctive is the voice of statutes, terms of use, contest rules and condominium regulations. Conversation uses the same tense all the time (Se você quiser, a gente vai), but nobody stacks conditions the way a regulation does.

In context

A condominium notice can use both in a few lines: Os moradores que realizarem obras sem autorização serão notificados. Caso a irregularidade persista, será aplicada multa. Seja como for, a administração continua aberta ao diálogo. Each condition opens a possible future case (que realizarem with the future subjunctive, caso persista with the present subjunctive), while seja como for simply closes the subject.

Contrasts and traps

• No indicative inside a formula: custa o que custar and é como for are wrong.
• caso vs se: Caso chova… / Se chover… are both fine; caso chover and se chova are not.
• haja vista, not haja visto.
• Future subjunctive or infinitive? In regular verbs they look the same (descumprir), but irregular verbs show the difference: quem fizer (not quem fazer); se ele vier (from vir, "to come") is not se ele vir (from ver, "to see").

If you speak Spanish

Spanish repeats the present subjunctive (cueste lo que cueste, pase lo que pase, sea como sea); Portuguese switches the second verb to the future subjunctive: custe o que custar, aconteça o que acontecer, seja como for. Copying the Spanish pattern (custe o que custe) is the classic mistake. The future subjunctive itself is not alien to you: Spanish keeps it in old legal texts and in the proverb Adonde fueres, haz lo que vieres. In Portuguese it is alive and everyday: cuando llegues is quando você chegar.