Q : there are some fixed expressions that i’ve seen in French where the subject is understood, but not stated. Three of these that come to mind: “ne serait-ce que…” [even if only…] & “se ferait bien…” [it would do well…] & ‘reste à savoir…’ [it remains to be seen…]. Are there a lot of these in French, and might you know a list of them that I could learn?
A : There’re hundreds and we use them a lot!! It’s called locutions.
As you said :
- Ne serait-ce que
- Ce serait bien que > “Se ferait bien” doesn’t exist, at least not in that context. “Se ferait bien” is quite a scandalous way to say you like somebody xD
- Reste à savoir si
Some other common possibilities :
- Autant dire que : You might aswell say
- Sans préciser que : Not adding
- Quid de : What about
- Juste pour dire que : Just saying
- D’autant que / plus que / moins que
- Histoire de : -No translation. Ex: Je passais histoire de. > I was just stopping by.
- Autant que faire se peut : As much as possible
Here you can find all the locutions.(There are different links for every kind of locutions…) I can’t explain them all, but feel free to ask if some are cryptic!


