sejais

Sejais is the second-person plural present subjunctive form of the Portuguese verb ser, used with the pronoun vós. It appears in subordinate clauses expressing wishes, possibility, doubt, or hypothetical scenarios, and in jussive or formal constructions. The present subjunctive forms of ser across persons are: eu seja, tu sejas, ele seja, nós sejamos, vós sejais, eles sejam.

In contemporary usage, the vós form is largely limited to Portugal and to formal, literary, or religious contexts. In most Brazilian Portuguese contexts, speakers use the equivalent with vocês: que vocês sejam. As a result, sejais is often described as archaic or highly formal in modern everyday speech, and it is more commonly found in classical texts, prayers, or dialectal registers.

Examples of usage include: “Que vós sejais bem-vindos” or “Espero que vós sejais prudentes.” In everyday writing or speech that uses the standard Brazilian or European norm, one would typically replace sejais with seja or sejam depending on the subject and person, or use the vocês form: “que vocês sejam.”

Sejais is related to the same verb family as the other present-subjunctive forms of ser, and its pronunciation follows typical Portuguese phonology, with the j representing a palato-alveolar fricative [ʒ] in standard varieties.