English: Please (a couple of different ways)
French: Veuillez/S’il vous plaît
In an earlier post, we learned that the most common way to say “please” in French is “S’il vous plaît” for formal situations, which is the one that we flight attendants are expected to use, and “s’il te plaît” for informal situations. They both literally mean “if it pleases you” and they’re often abbreviated to “SVP” and “STP” respectively.
In the airline industry, you’ll very frequently come across another word for “please”, which is “veuillez”. This word is very appropriate when making announcements to a large group of people, requesting them to do something in a very formal way, such as announcing to all your passengers to “veuillez rester assis” “please stay seated”.
Speaking directly to a passenger to request that they do something using “veuillez” is a bit excessive (but it’s not wrong to do so and as a French learner, passengers will understand and will not fault you for it.)
You’ll notice that most of the standard flight attendant announcements that the airline provides you use “veuillez”. For added politeness, you can combine “SVP” and “veuillez” and say “SVP veuillez”.
SVP veuillez rester assis=Please stay seated
Grammatically, “veuillez” is the imperative form of the verb “vouloir” “to want” and the only time you’ll probably see “veuillez” is in this context, where it’s used to mean “please”.
Module 4 of Canadian French for Flight Attendants will be available very soon!
-Less common food/drinks/special meals.
-Bag issues (bag won't fit/no more space).
-Announcements for mechanical problems, cancellations, airplane changes, diverting, etc.
-Delays because of fuel, catering, connection passengers, weather, etc.
-Tight/missed connections.
-And much, much more!
Flight Attendant Souvenirs. Souvenirs d’un agent de bord. Morocco, December 2019. Maroc, décembre 2019. More of the old city of Fes and surrounding areas. The Blue gate is the main entrance and meeting point of the old city. The Royal Palace. The market. And Fes is also known for its leather tanneries. (Beware of the pungent smells!)
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