Concessive Fronting: Difficult Though It Was; Try As I Might
By the end: I can interpret and selectively use marked concessive patterns, preserving the acknowledged difficulty and the outcome that remains in force.
Try the activities, then check your answers.
Try the activities, then check your answers.
Choose a short recording.
Before you start
Compare Although the task was difficult, she finished it with Difficult though the task was, she finished it. What changes besides word order?
Useful background: C1 concession patterns; fronting and auxiliary versus non-auxiliary inversion.
Front an acknowledged quality
An adjective can precede though or as in a concessive construction. The remaining clause normally keeps subject before the verb. The quality is acknowledged while the main clause presents a result not prevented by it.
Difficult though the task was, she completed it.
Useful as the shortcut is, it does not remove the need to check.
Recognise marked noun patterns
A singular count noun can appear without its ordinary article in some fronted concessive patterns. This is a property of the construction, not permission to omit articles throughout ordinary prose. Such wording can sound formal or literary.
Expert though she was, she asked for a second opinion on the draft.
Beginner as he was, he noticed the missing step.
The count-role article returns in an ordinary clause
In this construction, expert names a countable role without its ordinary article.
The ordinary count-role description has an article.
Interpret effort constructions in context
Try as I might presents an effort that did not overcome a difficulty in the surrounding account. Might here belongs to the concessive pattern; do not mechanically read it as a prediction of future success. A plain although-clause is often the clearer neutral alternative.
Try as I might, I could not make the two accounts agree.
Search as we might, we could not find the missing page.
Guided practice
Say or write your answer first. Compare the meaning and form; the model is one possible answer.
1. Recast Although the task was difficult, she completed it using fronted difficult.
Compare a model and explanation
Difficult though the task was, she completed it.
Subject-verb order remains the task was after though.
2. Recast Although the shortcut is useful, it needs testing using as.
Compare a model and explanation
Useful as the shortcut is, it needs testing.
The benefit is conceded without removing the limitation.
3. Expand Expert though she was into a neutral clause.
Compare a model and explanation
Although she was an expert
The normal article returns in the ordinary clause.
4. Explain why Expert though she was does not justify She was expert at the meeting when the intended meaning is a countable professional role.
Compare a model and explanation
The fronted concessive noun pattern has special article behaviour; an ordinary count-role description normally needs an article or another determiner.
Do not transfer a construction-specific omission indiscriminately; expert can also be an adjective in other contexts.
5. Give a neutral paraphrase of Try as I might, I could not find the missing line.
Compare a model and explanation
Although I tried hard, I could not find the missing line.
The effort and failure are both preserved.
6. Read the restoration note. Write one marked concession about the scan and one neutral sentence about what remains unknown.
Compare a model and explanation
Useful though the scanned copy was, it did not reveal the final line. We still do not know what that line said.
The source’s useful but incomplete evidence remains incomplete.
7. Identify the distortion in Difficult though the search was, the final line was recovered when the dossier records no recovery.
Compare a model and explanation
The grammatical concession has been used to invent a successful outcome.
A well-formed structure cannot substitute for source support.
8. Explain why Though difficult, the task was finished and Difficult though the task was, it was finished are related but not identical structures.
Compare a model and explanation
The first uses a reduced concessive clause; the second retains an explicit subject and verb after the fronted adjective.
Related meanings can be expressed through distinct grammatical constructions.
A short conversation
Listen first if you can, then open the transcript when useful.
Open the conversation transcript
A: Did the scan solve the problem with the old letter?
B: Useful though it was, it didn’t reveal the final line.
A: But the editor knows a great deal about these documents.
B: Expert though she is, she won’t invent the missing words. Try as we might, we haven’t found another copy.
Listening checks
Listen to each extract or open its transcript. These three questions have their own score.
Mastery quiz
Choose the best answer in each situation. Your score is out of eight.
Use it in your own words
Speaking task 1
Summarise the restoration note for a literary discussion using two marked concessions, then give a neutral version.
Reveal a possible response
Useful though the scan was, it did not reveal the final line. Expert though the editor was, she asked for another check. More neutrally: The scan helped, but the ending remains unknown, and the experienced editor sought a second reading.
Success check: Preserve the partial benefit, uncertainty and further checking in both registers.
Speaking task 2
Create an invented account of persistent effort without implying a result that did not occur.
Reveal a possible response
Search as we might, we couldn’t find the second page. We did locate a clearer copy of the first page, but that did not solve the missing-ending problem.
Success check: Distinguish partial progress from the unresolved main task.
Speaking task 3
Critique an elegant but misleading rewrite.
Reveal a possible response
Difficult though the task was, we recovered the ending sounds polished, but it contradicts a source that records no recovery. I would keep the concession and correct the outcome: the ending remained unknown.
Success check: Evaluate fidelity before stylistic sophistication.
Take it with you
I can interpret and selectively use marked concessive patterns, preserving the acknowledged difficulty and the outcome that remains in force.