protestáis

Protestéis is presented in some references as a form of the verb protestar in Portuguese. It is described as the second-person plural present subjunctive (vós) of protestar, a mood used to express doubt, desire, necessity, or hypothetical action after certain conjunctions such as que. In standard modern European Portuguese, the corresponding form is protesteis, written without an accent, and used in formal or literary contexts when the vós form is invoked. In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, speakers typically use protestem for the third-person plural subjunctive and would commonly render subordinate clauses with vocês rather than vós.

Usage and context

The present subjunctive is used after verbs and expressions that convey doubt, possibility, necessity, will, or emotion, for example: é importante que protesteis (in contexts where the vós form is used). Because the vós forms have diminished in common speech, many contemporary writers and speakers favor protestem or protesteis only in regional or archaic registers; in Brazil, the prefered alternative is que vocês protestem.

Grammatical notes

Protestéis, when encountered, is tied to a now less common register of European Portuguese that preserves the vós paradigm. The more widely used form in modern practice is protesteis (vós) or, outside of the vós paradigm, protestem for the corresponding third-person plural form. The word has little use in everyday modern language outside specific regional, historical, or formal contexts.

See also

Protestar, protestos, protesto.