Breakdown of Esperamos que vocês vivam muitos anos.
vocês
you (pl)
muito
much / very
o ano
the year
viver
to live
que
that (conjunction)
esperar
to hope
Questions & Answers about Esperamos que vocês vivam muitos anos.
Why is the verb vivam spelled with an 'a' instead of vivem?
The verb esperar here means to hope. Expressing a hope, wish, or desire that someone else does something is a classic trigger for the Present Subjunctive. Because of this, the normal present tense vivem changes to the subjunctive form vivam.
How do we form this subjunctive version of viver?
For regular -er verbs like viver, the subjunctive is formed by swapping the characteristic vowel. Instead of the usual e endings, you use a endings. For the vocês form, you add -am to the verb stem, giving you vivam.
I learned that esperar means to wait. Why does it mean to hope here?
The verb esperar can mean to wait, to expect, or to hope. When it is followed by que and a subjunctive verb like vivam, it almost always expresses a hope or desire. If you wanted to say 'we wait for you', you would typically use the preposition por, as in esperamos por vocês.
Could we leave out the word vocês and just say Esperamos que vivam muitos anos?
Yes, you can drop the pronoun because Portuguese often leaves it out. However, since the subjunctive ending -am is shared by vocês (you all), eles (they, masculine), and elas (they, feminine), keeping vocês makes it perfectly clear who you are talking to.
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