What does "“If you would be so kind,”" mean? What does would mean?
“If you would be so kind,” Langdon said, doing his best to remain polite, “could you take the man’s name and number, and tell him I’ll try to call him before I leave Paris on Tuesday? Thank you.”

"What does "“If you would be so kind,”" mean? What does would mean?"

Question

What does "“If you would be so kind,”" mean? What does would mean?
“If you would be so kind,” Langdon said, doing his best to remain polite, “could you take the man’s name and number, and tell him I’ll try to call him before I leave Paris on Tuesday? Thank you.”

"What does "“If you would be so kind,”" mean? What does would mean?"

Answer

"If you would be so kind" is a very polite and formal way of saying "please". You could replace the whole sentence with the word please: "Please, could you take the man's name and number."

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