Il y a toutes les chances

The Subjunctivisor!

Does il y a toutes les chances require the subjunctive?

No, il y a toutes les chances does not take the subjunctive:

Par exemple…

Il y a toutes les chances que mon frère a tout gâché.
There is every chance that my brother has made a mess of things.

 À noter : There’s some disagreement about these types of expressions, but it comes down to possibility vs probability: the former requires the subjunctive, the latter the indicative. In my (and many others’) view, toutes les chances is on the probability side of the scale, which calls for the indicative.

Related: Does il y a des chances need the subjunctive?

The Subjunctivisor!  |  Subjunctive lesson
 

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1 Response

  1. Jane 4 January 2017 / 7:15

    Hello,
    It actually requires the subjunctive 🙂
    “Que mon frère ait…” is correct, and precisely a subjunctive (the indicative would have been “mon frère a”).
    On the other hand, you can sometimes see the indicative, but in very specific contexts. For instance: “malgré toutes les chances que je t’ai données, tu m’as encore déçue.” Here, there’s no probability, the speaker did give second chances, but the other person screwed up again.
    Hope it’s clearer for you! 🙂

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