Everything about the French sentence "S'il vous plaît"

We are going to teach you all the things you ever wanted to know about the basic phrase "S'il vous plaît". It includes a detailed definition of what it is and how to use it in everyday life with an audio example. But that's not all, we also added useful things like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, synonyms and more!

Translation in English

Translation : Please
Register : Formal - Basic

Audio pronunciation

Slow

Normal

IPA : / sil vu plɛ /

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What does s'il vous plaît mean?

Definition

This is a must-know sentence for everybody trying to learn French as we use it (massively) every day. It literally means "If it pleases you" which is translated in English as "Please".

How to use it

There are two variations that you should know: the first one is "S'il te plaît" which you should use when talking to only one person and if you "know" this person already (a friend, a lover, a family member or anybody you can be informal with).

For example: "Papa, tu peux m'aider s'il te plait ?" (Dad, can you help me, please?)

Now, it's different if you are talking to several people and/or people you should show respect (strangers, elderly, police, when meeting colleagues, etc.). Here you should use: "S'il vous plait".

For example: "Pouvez-vous me donner le dossier s'il vous plaît ?" (Can you give me the folder please?)

Also, both are invariable, so never add an "s" at "plait" or at "il". Just like you should never conjugate it with the genre and say "S'elle te plait" for example.

Finally, you will probably often see variations of "plait" with 'î' instead of 'i'. Since 1990, both are ok and we prefer using the version with the "simple i" but it's still used for official documents and some other situations. Anyway, you will NEVER be wrong by not putting the accent over the 'i'.

Fun stuff

In some part of Eastern France and Belgium, people are using "S'il vous plait" as a way to say "There you go / Here is" when politely giving something to you.

For example: "Pouvez-vous me passer le sel s'il vous plaît ?" (Can you pass me the salt please?) then the person will grab the salt, give it to you and say "S'il vous plaît".

But this person is not really asking you "please" but just being polite, you can see it as "please accept this salt". And so you simply say: "Merci" (Thank you).

Synonyms / Related

The "full" synonyms are:

S'il te plait. ("Please")(Neutral and singular)
S'te plait. ("Please")(Familiar)
Steup. ("Please")(Very familiar)
STP. ("Please")(Texting)

And if you want something stronger, use one of these:

Je t'en prie. ("I beg you")(Medium strong)
Je t'en supplie. ("I beg you")(Super strong)
Je t'implore. ("I'm pleading you")(Super strong)

N.B: Depending on context, "Je t'en prie" can also mean: "You are welcome"

Example in a dialogue

Dialogue

Pouvez-vous m'aider s'il vous plaît ?

Can you help me, please?

Avec plaisir

With pleasure

Merci du fond du coeur !

Thanks from the bottom of my heart!