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Sentence explanations

1. S'il te plaît, ouvre la porte.

   Please open the door.

   S'il te plaît

   Please

   ouvre

   open

   porte

   door

   More detail

   S'il te plaît is the fixed French expression for “please” when addressing one person informally. It is used to make a request. With several people or with one person addressed formally, French uses s'il vous plaît instead. ouvre means “open” here and is the imperative form of ouvrir for tu (“you,” singular informal). The imperative gives a direct request or instruction. For example: Ouvre la fenêtre. — “Open the window.” la porte means “the door.” porte is a feminine singular noun, so it takes the feminine singular definite article la. The article is part of the noun phrase, while porte itself is the noun. The phrase une porte means “a door,” referring to a door without presenting it as definite. Together, S'il te plaît softens the request, ouvre gives the requested action, and la porte identifies the object: “Please open the door.”

2. S'il te plaît, ferme la fenêtre.

   Please close the window.

   S'il te plaît

   please

   ferme

   close

   fenêtre

   window

   More detail

   S'il te plaît is the standard informal way to say “please” when addressing one person. It is a fixed politeness expression; the te form is used with informal singular “you.” With formal or plural “you,” French uses S'il vous plaît instead. ferme comes from the verb fermer, “to close.” Here it is the imperative addressed to one person: Ferme la fenêtre. = “Close the window.” The same spelling can also be a present-tense form in another context, so the command meaning here comes from its position in the request and the absence of an expressed subject. The formal or plural imperative is fermez. fenêtre means “window.” It is a feminine noun, as shown here by the definite article la: la fenêtre, “the window.” The adjective fermé agrees with a feminine noun as fermée, but that is a different form from the verb ferme used in this sentence. Together, S'il te plaît makes the request polite, and ferme la fenêtre gives the action and its object: “Please close the window.”

3. S'il te plaît, allume-le.

   Please turn it on.

   S'il te plaît

   please

   allume

   turn on

   le

   it

   More detail

   S'il te plaît is the conventional French expression for “please.” The form te addresses one person informally; S'il vous plaît addresses one person formally or more than one person. allume comes from allumer, “to turn on” or “to light.” Here it is the second-person singular affirmative imperative. Allume ! is an instruction to turn something on, while the object is specified separately in allume-le. Example: Allume la lampe. — “Turn on the lamp.” le is a masculine singular direct-object pronoun. Here, the fixed translation identifies its intended meaning as “it,” but it does not identify the object's specific referent. In an affirmative imperative, this pronoun follows the verb and is joined to it with a hyphen: allume-le. Its form reflects the grammatical gender and number of the noun it replaces, not the sex of a person. Together, S'il te plaît politely addresses one informal singular listener, and allume-le gives that listener the imperative instruction to turn the object represented by le on: “Please turn it on.”

4. S'il te plaît, éteins-le.

   Please turn it off.

   S'il te plaît

   Please

   éteins

   turn off

   le

   it

   More detail

   S'il te plaît is the standard French expression for “please.” It literally contains te, an informal singular “you” object pronoun, but the expression is learned as a polite request formula. A more formal or plural “you” uses vous instead: S'il vous plaît. éteins means “turn off” here. It is the second-person singular imperative of éteindre (“to turn off”); the same form also appears as the present-tense tu form: tu éteins. The imperative addresses one person informally. Compare the related opposite, allumer (“to turn on”): Allume la lumière. — “Turn on the light.” le is a masculine singular direct-object pronoun, corresponding here to “it.” In the written imperative construction, it follows the verb with a hyphen: éteins-le. The pronoun’s grammatical form is masculine singular; the fixed translation identifies its intended referent only as “it,” without naming the object. Together, S'il te plaît + éteins-le produces the polite informal request “Please turn it off.” The imperative supplies the request, and le identifies the thing being turned off without repeating its noun.

5. S'il te plaît, donne-moi ça.

   Please give me this.

   S'il te plaît

   please

   donne-moi

   give me

   ça

   this

   More detail

   S'il te plaît is the fixed polite expression “please.” In this expression, plaît is the present-tense third-person singular form of plaire, not a conditional form. te addresses one person informally. With a formal or plural addressee, French uses s'il vous plaît instead. donne-moi combines the imperative donne with moi, meaning “to me” here. donne is the second-person singular imperative of donner; the infinitive is donner. In an affirmative imperative, French places this pronoun after the verb and joins the parts with a hyphen: Donne-moi ça. (“Give me this.”) In a negative command, the pronoun moves before the verb: Ne me donne pas ça. (“Do not give me this.”) ça is a demonstrative pronoun meaning “this” here. It can identify a thing without repeating its noun. The form does not show the grammatical gender or number of the thing referred to. French also has ceci, another demonstrative pronoun often used for “this,” while ça is very common in ordinary speech. Together, S'il te plaît makes the request polite, donne-moi expresses giving something to the speaker, and ça identifies what is requested. The complete utterance therefore means “Please give me this.”

6. Je vais prendre ça.

   I will take this.

   Je vais

   I am going

   prendre

   take

   ça

   this

   More detail

   Je vais combines the subject pronoun je (“I”) with vais, the first-person singular present form of aller (“to go”). Here, aller is used with an infinitive to form the near future: je vais + infinitive means “I am going to …” or, in this translation, “I will …”. The form vais belongs to aller, not to prendre; it agrees with the first-person singular subject. prendre is the infinitive “to take.” After je vais, it remains in the infinitive rather than changing to a present-tense form. Useful present forms include je prends (“I take”) and il/elle prend (“he/she takes”); these are forms of the same verb, but prends and prend are not used after je vais in this construction. ça is a demonstrative pronoun meaning “this” here. It is a compact, everyday form and does not change for grammatical gender or number. Its specific referent is understood from the situation; the fixed translation identifies it as “this.” Together, Je vais prendre ça follows the reusable pattern subject + aller + infinitive + demonstrative pronoun: “I will take this.” The preceding request contains the same demonstrative ça, and this sentence states that the speaker will take the indicated thing.