In this lesson, we’re going to learn a common expression of astonishment that is nearly cognate to the English interjection, “Heaven forbid!” or “Far be it from me!” I will not joke around: Mastering this phrase is satisfying. 🙂

The most basic (and most common) form of this phrase is:

Heaven forbid! / Far be it from him!

This is made up of three parts:

• The verb (which means “to spare” or “to protect”)
• The direct object marker ,
• And the appropriate pronoun.

As such, it can be altered to suit the subject at hand, and here are a few more examples:

Heaven forbid her! / Far be it from her!

Heaven forbid me! / Far be it from me!

In the next lesson, we will learn more about the different pronominal suffixes so we can make full and proper use of this interjection.