であれ and かれ

Table of Contents

This page explains more ways to express irrelevance:

であれ – Nouns/な Adjectives
かれ – い Adjectives

であれ

A or B, It doesn’t matter
Noun A + であれ + Noun B + であれ
Noun A + であろうと + Noun B + であろうと

であれ is a literary/old way of saying でも.
Literally it means something like “Be a X, Be a y..”
It is essentially a variation of にしろ, except more literary and a little softer sounding.

であれ only works for nouns (and な Adjectives)

This pattern may alternatively appear as であろうと

Examples

猫であれ犬であれ、飼わない
Cat or dog, I’m not going to keep it as a pet.
部長であろうと一般社員であろうと遅刻してはならない
Section chief or general employee, you mustn’t be late.
小説であれ雑誌であれ日本語を読むのは大切な練習だ
Novel or magazine, reading Japanese is important practice.
3歳であろうと50歳であろうと、人を殴ってはいけない
3 years old or 50 years old, its not ok to hit people.

かれ

A or B, it doesn’t matter
い Adjective: Drop い add かれ
い Adjective かれ + Opposite い Adjective かれ

かれ is the “であれ” form for い adjectives.
The 2 adjectives used by かれ should be opposites.
かれ has a tendency to use set pairs of words. (Big or small, sooner or later, etc).

If it helps, you may think of かれ as an abbreviation of “くであれ”

Examples

良かれ悪しかれ (よかれあしかれ)
Good or bad (It doesn’t matter)
優しかれ厳しかれ先生に敬語を使うべき
Nice or strict, you should use Keigo with your teacher.
早かれ遅かれいずれは成功する
Sooner or later, eventually we will succeed.
多かれ少なかれ、誰にでも秘密がある
Many or few, everyone has some secrets.