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I find this sentence in an online article strange and even jarring for several reasons.

With limited provisions, he awaits reinforcements, but circumstances as they are, is believed lost to the wilds. (source)

I am not quite sure what grammar function "circumstances as they are" takes. It seems there's missing components. I have never seen things as they are or circumstances as they are stand alone in a sentence like this (except in book titles). I would have written:

With limited provisions, he awaits reinforcements, but given circumstances as they are, is believed lost to the wilds.

Am I correct in thinking the sentence is ungrammatical as it stands? If I am wrong, what grammatical role does "circumstances as they are" take? Is it adverbial?

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    It's a verbless clause and common enough in informal speech. In full, it would be "circumstances being as/what they are".
    – BillJ
    Commented Apr 25, 2019 at 5:57
  • @BillJ Yes, this seems like the definitive answer. I'll add the observation that OP is correct that the phrase as a whole functions as an adverb (it modifies 'is believed') with or without the missing form of 'to be.' Have you considered converting your comment to an answer?
    – Quack E. Duck
    Commented Jul 14, 2023 at 3:14

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I believe it’s technically a prepositional phrase. There’s an understood “with” here: “...he awaits reinforcements, but with circumstances as they are...” That’s just one of those technically-improper-if-you-want-to-split-hairs-but-people-say-it-like-that-anyway phrases. With your edit, the “given” seems to be acting as an adjective and doesn’t affect the grammatical structure. Either the original or way is fine.

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