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Sois charmant, mais sois toujours sincère !

Sois charmant, mais sois toujours sincère !
Be charming, but always be sincere!
From Lesson 116:Irregular imperatives (sois, aie)·French

Breakdown of Sois charmant, mais sois toujours sincère !

être
to be
mais
but
toujours
always
charmant
charming (delightful, lovely)
sincère
sincere

Questions & Answers about Sois charmant, mais sois toujours sincère !

Why does the sentence use sois instead of es for "be"?
Sois is the command form (imperative) of the verb être (to be) for the tu (informal singular "you") form. Être is highly irregular, so instead of using the normal present tense es, you must use sois to give a direct command.
Is this sentence being spoken to a man or a woman?
It is being spoken to a male. We know this because the adjective charmant is in the masculine form. If you were giving this advice to a female, you would add an e to make it charmante. The second adjective, sincère, already ends in an e, so it looks the same for both men and women.
Commands for regular verbs usually drop the final "s" for "tu". Does that happen here?
No! Dropping the final s in the tu command form only applies to regular verbs that end in -er (like saying mange instead of manges). Because être is a highly irregular verb, its command form sois keeps the s at the end.
Why does toujours come after sois?
In French, short adverbs like toujours (always) are placed immediately after the conjugated verb they modify. While in English we say "always be" (adverb before verb), in French it must be sois toujours (verb before adverb).

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