The pattern

"Please" plus a verb makes a polite instruction. "Please sit down." "Please close the door behind you." It is the language of signs, receptionists, teachers and emails: clear about what should happen, courteous about how it is said.

Where you put "please" changes the feeling. At the start, it is a polite instruction: "Please wait here." At the end, it softens a request: "Could you wait here, please?" In conversation between equals, a question with "please" at the end usually sounds friendlier than a sentence starting with it. In writing, "Please find attached" and "Please let me know" are standard.

Say it out loud

Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.

  5. The negative: "Please don't".

  7. A standard email line. Formal but completely normal.

  8. Between friends, a question with "please" at the end sounds warmer.

  9. Said with a hand gesture to let someone go first.

Check yourself

1Which sounds warmer between friends?
2Which is a standard email line?
3Someone calls you "Ms. Tanaka" and you prefer your first name. What do you say?

Practice · 3 min

Make a polite instruction or request. Prompt on the left, one natural sentence on the right.

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Say it today

Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.