Any informal word for 'lest'?

Hi all,
Can the word 'lest' be replaced by any informal verb or phrasal verb meaning the same? If not, how is the whole sentence paraphrased in everyday English?


'They were afraid to complain about the noise lest they annoyed the neighbours.'

Thanks a lot! Having this choice, then, do I make sense saying something like the following sentence?

'The guy didn't say a word in case the police got suspicious of him!'

Mehrgan said:

Thanks a lot! Having this choice, then, do I make sense saying something like the following sentence?

'The guy didn't say a word in case the police got suspicious of him!'

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One can also use "for fear that".

** NOT A TEACHER **

Mehrgan said:

'They were afraid to complain about the noise lest they annoy[STRIKE]ed[/STRIKE] the neighbours.'

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Were I to use "lest", I would use it with the subjunctive. Thus the sentence would read, "They were afraid to complain about the noise lest they annoy the neighbours." I think "should" could also be used: "They were afraid to complain about the noise lest they should annoy the neighbours."

Native speakers rarely use 'lest'. They prefer to avoid having to think what it should be followed by.

Type lest in the Google Custom S(earch) box near the top of the page. You will find links to previous discussions of the topic.

englishhobby said:

'They were afraid to complain about the noise (lest they annoyed) not to annoy the neighbours.'

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I don't know what you meant by this post. How do you propose to put "not to annoy" in this sentence?

emsr2d2 said:

I don't know what you meant by this post. How do you propose to put "not to annoy" in this sentence?

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I thought we could substitute "lest" in the given sentence with "(in order) not to" (according to the 1st meaning of the word "lest" in the Longman Dictionary: in order to make sure that something will not happen) . Or can't we?
lest - Definition from Longman English Dictionary Online

I understand it like this: the neighbours of some people produced great noise, but the people didn't complain, because they were afraid that, if they complained about their neighbours' behaviour to someone (authorities, for instance), their neighbours might get angry and annoyed. So the people didn't complain to anyone in order not to make their neighbours annoyed. Can't we use "(in order) not to" here?

englishhobby said:

I thought we could substitute "lest" in the given sentence with "(in order) not to" (according to the 1st meaning of the word "lest" in the Longman Dictionary: in order to make sure that something will not happen) . Or can't we?
lest - Definition from Longman English Dictionary Online

I understand it like this: the neighbours of some people produced great noise, but the people didn't complain, because they were afraid that, if they complained about their neighbours' behaviour to someone (authorities, for instance), their neighbours might get angry and annoyed. So the people didn't complain to anyone in order not to make their neighbours annoyed. Can't we use "(in order) not to" here?

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That's very clunky. We would probably say "The people didn't complain to anyone so that they didn't annoy the neighbours" or "The people didn't complain to anyone to avoid annoying the neighbours".

emsr2d2 said:

That's very clunky.

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It struck me - perhaps, it's clunky, because we can say "one DOES something in oder TO DO something else", but we can't say "one DOESN"T DO something in order TO DO something else". How do you like my new English rule?