"Suffice It To Say" as a Subjunctive Summary Opener
5 exercises — practise the fixed subjunctive opener "suffice it to say (that)".
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses the fixed subjunctive "suffice it to say" to introduce an understated summary?
"Suffice it to say, the migration did not go as planned" preserves the invariant subjunctive form "suffice" (not "suffices") and the fixed word order. Option B wrongly conjugates for third person singular. Option C wrongly uses a gerund. Option D reorders the subject and verb, which is ungrammatical for this fixed phrase.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly follows "suffice it to say" with an explicit "that"-clause?
"Suffice it to say that the root cause took three engineers two days to isolate" correctly uses "that" to introduce the summarized clause. Options B and C substitute the wrong connector ("what", "if"). Option D wrongly uses a gerund after "to".
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "suffice it to say" to imply more detail exists without stating it, in an incident retrospective?
"Suffice it to say the postmortem document runs to twelve pages..." is the correct fixed idiom (the "that" can also be dropped, as here). Option B uses the fully conjugated "it suffices to say", which is grammatical but a different, more literal register than the idiomatic fixed phrase being tested. Options C and D scramble the internal word order of the idiom.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly distinguishes "suffice it to say" (a fixed idiom opener) from a literal use of the verb "suffice"?
"...will not suffice; suffice it to say, this release touches nearly every module" correctly uses the literal verb "suffice" in the first clause and the separate fixed idiom "suffice it to say" in the second. Option B wrongly merges the idiom into the first clause. Options C and D wrongly conjugate "suffice" with an "-s" ending in either clause.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "suffice it to say" mid-paragraph before a brief, deliberately vague summary of a security incident?
"...yet; suffice it to say, no customer payment data was affected" preserves the correct fixed subjunctive form and word order. Option B wrongly uses the past participle "said". Option C inserts an extra "is". Option D reorders the subject and subjunctive verb incorrectly.