Salut à tous, hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of French Made Easy. Thanks for joining me here. It's episode number 9, numéro neuf, and today you'll learn how to say "please," "thank you," "you're welcome," and "excuse me." Pretty essential stuff, right?
As always, make sure you download your episode cheat sheet so you can listen to the words and see how they are written at the same time!
Ready? On y va. Let's go.
So, to say "please," you have 2 options.
In a formal way, but also if you're addressing a group of people, say:
S'il vous plaît. (Meaning please.) Répétez après moi. Repeat after me: s'il vous plaît.In a more casual way, say:
S'il te plaît. (Also meaning please) Répétez après moi: s'il te plaît.Great! So “please” is: s’il vous plaît (formal) and s’il te plaît (informal).
Notice the difference here with the “vous” and “te”, s’il vous plait (formal) and s’il te plait (informal).
Ok very good. Now, to thank someone, you can say:
Merci. (Thank you) Repeat after me: merci.Merci beaucoup. (Thank you very much) Répétez après moi: merci beaucoup.Good. So to thank someone: merci or merci beaucoup. You can use both in any situation.
After “thank you” usually comes: “you’re welcome”. So here’s what you can say.
In a formal way:
Je vous en prie. (It's my pleasure.) Repeat after me: Je vous en prie.Or in a more casual way, you can say:
De rien. (You're welcome, literally translated "it's nothing.") Répétez après moi: de rien. Pas de quoi. (Don't mention it.) Repeat after me: pas de quoi.Good. So, to say “you’re welcome” you can say formally: je vous en prie and less formally de rien or pas de quoi.
Now, when you need to say "excuse me," here are a few phrases you can use.
Formally, but also if you're addressing a group of people, say:
Excusez-moi. (Excuse me) Répétez après moi: excusez-moi.More casually:
Excuse-moi. (Excuse me.) Repeat after me: excuse-moi.Notice the difference between excusez-moi (with a [eh] sound) and excuse-moi, with no [eh] sound.
You could also simply say:
Pardon. (Pardon me.) Répétez après moi: pardon.And you can also use this one in any formal or informal situation.
Parfait. So we’ve got excusez-moi, excuse moi and pardon.
Very good. Now let's repeat these 10 sentences, just for fun:
S'il vous plaît. (Meaning please, formal or plural.)S'il te plaît. (Please, informal.)Merci. (Thank you.)Merci beaucoup. (Thank you very much)Je vous en prie. (It's my pleasure, formal)De rien. (You're welcome)Pas de quoi. (Don’t mention it)Excusez-moi. (Excuse me, formal or plural)Excuse-moi. (Excuse me, informal)Pardon. (Pardon me)Ok good. So there you have them: the 10 essential polite phrases you need to know in French. That's it for this episode, thank you so much for listening guys. Don’t forget to download your lesson’s exercises by clicking the link in the episode’s notes. Also, make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any new episodes. And if you are enjoying this podcast, I'd really appreciate a quick rating and review.
Merci beaucoup et à bientôt. 👋