All about the French phrase "S'te plaît"

Get ready to learn everything you ever wanted to know about the basic French sentence “S’te plaît”.

Are included a complete guide of what it is and how you can use it in a conversation with an audio example. But that’s not all, we also added super useful stuff like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, synonym and more!

If you want, on this page you will find more of these sentences explained plus the directory of all our French words tutorials on this page. Have fun!

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Translation in English

Pronunciation example

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does s'te plaît mean?

Definition

“S’te plait” is the informal way to say “Please” in French. It’s the shortened version of “S’il te plait” and it literally means “If it pleases you“.

How to use it

Depending on the context, you should either use “S’te plait” (Informal & Singular) or “S’il te plait” (Neutral & Singular) or “S’il vous plaît” (Formal &/or Plural).

So, use “S’te plait” or “S’il te plaît” 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’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 to (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 facts

For an even more informal version, you can use “Steup“. And for texting, we use massively “Stp” which is even shorter…

Synonyms and similarities

The “full” synonyms are:

  • S’il vous plaît. (“Please“)(Formal and singular)
  • S’il te plait. (“Please“)(Neutral and singular)
  • 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 story with English translation

Now, let’s see a complete example of this phrase in a story with slow French audio and the English translation below.
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Rendez-vous au restaurant
Date at the restaurant
___
Joe et Angèle ont un rendez-vous au restaurant.
Joe and Angèle have a date at the restaurant.
Joe:   Bonjour ! Nous avons une réservation pour deux à vingt heures au nom de Joe.
Hello! We have a reservation for two at 8pm in the name of Joe.
Le serveur vérifia la liste des réservations puis conduit Joe et Angèle à leur table.
The server checked the reservation list, then took Joe and Angèle at their table.
Enfin, il leur donna le menu.
Finally, he gave them the menu.
Joe:   Waouh ! Il y a beaucoup de choix ! Angèle, tu peux me recommander un plat typiquement français, s’te plaît ?
Whoa! There is a lot of choice! Angèle, can you recommend me a typical French dish, please?
Angèle:   Je te recommande le foie gras ! C’est du foie de canard engraissé. En général, on le mange avec des toasts et de la confiture de figue.
I recommend you the foie gras! This is fattened duck liver. In general, we eat it with some toasts and fig jam.
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