Dear teacher,
"The attitude of a lot of the students, a lot of these student entrepreneurs is, just give it a go, see what happens, and if the response is not what they hoped for, so be it; no big loss," he said.
Q : I think the structure of it is that "The attitude is that (A)just give it a go, (B) see what happens, ..... The object clause is an imperative sentence, and there is no subject of give and see in the sentence. But Why is comma placed before "just give it a go..."?
Q2: I think "so be it" means "that's all, It is not a big deal". Why is a infinitive verb "be" used?
An interview in a newspaper
Moderator: Alan
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Q1. The clauses are complements, not objects, but essentially yes, you are right. A comma is often used in this way to signal that a complement is not of the normal syntactic type - imperative verb phrases, needless to say, do not regularly function as complements.
Q2. No, 'so be it' means 'let it be so', indicating the speaker's acceptance of a certain state of affairs. 'Be' is not an infinitive but a form of the imperative mood, often also known as an 'optative' form.
Q2. No, 'so be it' means 'let it be so', indicating the speaker's acceptance of a certain state of affairs. 'Be' is not an infinitive but a form of the imperative mood, often also known as an 'optative' form.