que fosse

que fosse (not comparable)

1. (postpositive) the past form of que seja: modifies a quantity in past negative or past potential contexts (possibilities, necessities, wishes) or counterfactuals to express that the quantity is small but would have been sufficient: even; only

   Pedi que me desse vinte e cinco centavos que fossem, que tinha fome.

   I asked him to give me only twenty-five cents if that was all he could give me, for I was hungry.

   Um descuido que fosse poria tudo a perder.

   Only one mistake would have put everything at risk.

   Ele não tinha um par de sapatos que fosse.

   He did not have even one pair of shoes.

   • 1878, Machado de Assis, O Machete (short story):

     [E]m vez de um aplauso ruidoso, ele preferia ver outro mais consentâneo com a natureza da obra, — duas lágrimas que fossem, — duas, mas exprimidas do coração, como as que naquele momento lhe sulcavam o rosto.

     Instead of a loud applause, he would rather see something more agreeable with the nature of the work, — two tears if they must be so few, — two, but expressed from the heart, as the ones that at that moment furrowed his face.

• Although this phrase is adverbial, in that it modifies numerals, it consists of the relative pronoun que and the verb ser in the imperfect subjunctive. Formally, the subject of the verb is the relative pronoun que which in turn modifies the noun quantified by the numeral (lit. “that would be”) and conjugation must be accordingly: hence “uma lágrima que fosse” but “duas lágrimas que fossem”.

• que seja