S'il vous plaît, merci, and excuse me

S'il vous plaît ("seel voo pleh") means please. The literal translation is "if it pleases you". With friends or children, it shortens to s'il te plaît ("seel tuh pleh"). Tack it onto the end of any request: un café s'il vous plaît, l'addition s'il vous plaît.

Merci ("mehr-see") means thank you. To strengthen it, say merci beaucoup ("mehr-see boh-koo", thanks a lot) or merci bien ("mehr-see byahn", thanks very much — slightly more formal). Reply to merci with je vous en prie ("zhuh voo zahn pree", formal) or de rien ("duh ree-ahn", you're welcome / it's nothing) — or in Quebec, often simply bienvenue ("byahn-vuh-noo"), which would be confusing in France because there it only means welcome on arrival.

Excuse me has two flavours. Pardon ("par-dohn") is what you say when bumping into someone or squeezing past on a bus. Excusez-moi ("ex-koo-zay mwah") is what you say to get someone's attention before asking a question — like "excuse me, where's the metro?". Don't mix them up: pardon is apology, excusez-moi is an opener.