Les connecteurs de concession : bien que, malgré, pourtant, certes… mais
P47.b2-writing.28 · Audience: guest, language-pro, it-ml
Unité GR-32 · campagne 15 · admettre le fait, garder la conclusion.
Concession is the B2 essay move: you concede a point and keep your thesis. You met the logic in the certes… mais paragraph move and the bien que + subjonctif trigger; this unit assembles the full toolkit and sorts the connectors by what they attach to.
| Connector | Attaches to | Mood / form | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| bien que | clause | subjonctif | Bien que le projet soit coûteux, il mérite d'être défendu. |
| même si | clause | indicatif | Même si le projet est coûteux, il sera voté. |
| malgré | noun | — | Malgré la pluie, le match a eu lieu. |
| pourtant / cependant | new sentence | — | Il avait promis ; pourtant, il est venu à midi. |
| certes… mais | two sentences | — | Certes, le film est long, mais il captive. |
The mood split in the first two rows is the point Russian speakers must hold onto, because Russian хотя covers both with one indicative form. French separates them: bien que concedes an admitted fact and takes the subjunctive (bien qu'il soit tard — it really is late); même si concedes a hypothesis and stays indicative (même s'il est tard — whether or not it turns out to be). Writing bien que c'est is the classic error; writing même si ce soit is its over-corrected twin. One form each, never swapped.
Register notes worth points: malgré needs a noun — malgré la fatigue, never malgré il était fatigué (the fix is bien que + clause). Pourtant is the everyday adverb; cependant does the same job one register up, and is the safer choice in a formal essay. Certes… mais remains your paragraph-scale concession: concede in sentence one, strike in sentence two.
The practice forces the choice between noun-attachment, clause + mood, and the freestanding adverbs.
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