Please vs. Pleas

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Grammarist

Please means to give satisfaction, to give contentment. Please may be used as a transitive verb which is a verb that takes an object, and as an intransitive verb which is a verb that does not take an object. Related words are pleases, pleased, pleasing. Please is also used as an adverb to make a polite request or ask for favor. Please comes from the Old French word plaisir meant to give pleasure to, satisfy. Please is one of the one thousand most frequently used words in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Pleas is the plural of plea, which means an urgent request. In legal terms, a plea is an answer to a charge, referring to one’s guilt. Plea is derived from the Old French word plait, which means lawsuit, decision, or decree.

Examples

“Please do not charge for parking downtown evenings and weekends. Locals will stop coming.” (The Savannah Morning News)

The public consultation about retirement protection has angered many – but the chief secretary helming the exercise said on Wednesday that it was not the government’s job to “please everybody”. (The South China Morning POst)

In the case of the George London Foundation Awards Competition for young American and Canadian opera singers (one of the more lovable affairs), which held the final round of its 45th annual contest on Friday, at the Morgan Library & Museum, the odds were good that at least some of the choices would please everyone. (The New York Times)

He subsequently entered not guilty pleas on 6 June 2015. (The Guardian)

On Tuesday, Gates appeared with his attorney, John Brundage, and entered the no-contest pleas to several charges, including the home invasion of the unoccupied home on West Minges Road and of the home in the 600 block of East Minges Road, where residents were sleeping as Gates broke in and left with personal property including several long guns, cash and a knife. (The Battle Creek Enquirer)

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