s’il vous plaît
\s‿il vu plɛ\
The verdict
“s’il vous plaît” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Locution qui permet de demander quelque chose poliment, à quelqu’un que l’on vouvoie, ou à plusieurs personnes.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | s’il vous plaît |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | \s‿il vu plɛ\ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “s’il vous plaît” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
s’il vous plaît is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase, transcribed \s‿il vu plɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for s’il vous plaît, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is s’il vous plaît, spelled S-’-I-L- -V-O-U-S- -P-L-A-Î-T.
Definition
- 1Locution qui permet de demander quelque chose poliment, à quelqu’un que l’on vouvoie, ou à plusieurs personnes.
- 2Locution qui permet d’acquiescer poliment.
- 3Locution qui permet d’insister sur un point du discours.
- 4Voici, tenez.
- 5De rien.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “s’il vous plaît”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-’-I-L- -V-O-U-S- -P-L-A-Î-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \s‿il vu plɛ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.