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Ojalá que la fiebre sea el único síntoma.

Ojalá que la fiebre sea el único síntoma.
I hope the fever is the only symptom.
From Lesson 202:Expressing hopes (ojalá que)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about Ojalá que la fiebre sea el único síntoma.

Why do we use sea instead of es in this sentence?
Sea is the present subjunctive form of ser (to be). We use the subjunctive after ojalá (que) because it expresses a hope or a wish, rather than stating a guaranteed fact.
Do I always have to use que after ojalá?
No, the que is completely optional. You can say Ojalá la fiebre sea el único síntoma and it means exactly the same thing. Including que is just a very common habit in everyday spoken Spanish.
Why is it el único síntoma if the word síntoma ends in an 'a'?
Síntoma is a masculine noun, which is why it uses el and the masculine adjective único. Many Spanish words that end in -ma (like el problema, el sistema, and el tema) originally come from Greek and are masculine exceptions to the rule.
Since a fever is temporary, why do we use a form of ser (sea) instead of estar (esté)?
Even though an illness goes away, we use ser here because we are equating two things or identifying what it is. The sentence essentially says that one thing equals another (the fever equals the only symptom). When defining or identifying what something is, we always use ser.

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