No. 11,155 in German
seien
"Seien" is the subjunctive form of "sind," meaning "are" in English.
In a sentence
Ich bitte dich, ehrlich zu deinen Freunden zu sein, egal wie schwer die Wahrheit auch sei.
I ask you to be honest with your friends, no matter how hard the truth may be.
Expression of a hypothetical state or condition.
Die Gäste sollen pünktlich sein, um nicht zu spät zur Feier zu kommen, so sei es beschlossen.
The guests are to be on time to not arrive late to the party, so it is decided.
Formal or emphatic declaration.
Es gibt viele Gründe, warum wir freundlich zueinander sein sollten, sei es aus Respekt oder Höflichkeit.
There are many reasons why we should be kind to one another, be it out of respect or politeness.
Conjunction indicating an example or alternative options.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “seien” in actual German podcasts.
Find “seien” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays German podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into Deutsch, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
German books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).