Before traveling to Canada, I am refreshing my French. I thought it was Americans who add please to everything. But it turns out, the French add ‘s’il vous plaît’ even to the question “where is the toilet?” (Où sont les toilettes, s’il vous plaît) and how much will it cost (ça me fera combien, s’il vous plaît?).
Literally, ‘s’il vous plaît’ means “if it pleases you” or “if it pleases you” / “if it makes you happy” / “if it is pleasant to you”. Of course, no one translates it, but just puts it automatically, like an emoji. But you must agree, it’s unusual to add such a thing after asking “where is the toilet.”
I also learned how the French respond to sneezing. Here we say “Be healthy”. Americans say bless you (“God bless you”), and the French automatically say ‘à tes/vos souhaits’ (“may your wishes come true”). But that’s not all. If a friend sneezes a second time, they then say ‘à tes amours’ (“love to you”). And it’s said that if a friend sneezes a third time, they say “Qu’ils durent toujours” (“live long”). So, dinner table toasts probably started from here, I guess.
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 