S'il vous plait = polite S'il te plait = "impolite" I'm sure you know how "vous" is the polite form when you want to address someone. This is exactly the same as what happens in the "s'il vous plait"-sentence. In English there is no distinction between the polite (you) and impolite (you) form but most other language do have this difference. Dutch: u = polite jij = impolite German Sie = polite du = impolite Chinese 您 (nin) = polite 你 (ni) = impolite Hope this helps! Good luck with your French study! :)