and certainly not, but certainly not, but, although, even though
Structure
［する］Verb + こそすれ + Phrase[ない]
Verb［ます］+ こそすれ + Phrase[ない]
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I’ve tried reporting this via the report feature on the page but it has gone unanswered for 2 months. The explanation currently says the imperative form is used to contrast clauses but すれ is not an imperative form. This line should be removed.
Edit: Has been updated now, thanks much.
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The explanation for this grammar point is super confusing, and I wonder if the translations are really correct. Since it’s a realis form, wouldn’t a sentence like 多くの人にとって、その奇妙な現象は驚きこそすれ、恐怖を感じるほどではなかった。be translated as “certainly…not…” " The strange phenomenon was certainly surprising for many, but not terrifying."
Bunpro’s translation was “and certainly not”: “The strange phenomenon was surprising for many, and certainly not terrifying.”
In my humble rephrasing of an online JP-JP dictionary (「こそすれ」の意味や使い方 わかりやすく解説 Weblio辞書):
(A)を事実として認める。(B)は断じて否定する。
This seems to align with Bunpro’s translation.
I don’t understand what “realis form” means or implies (or the rest of Bunpro’s explanation really), but why would “certainly” refer to the first and not the second part?