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Whats the rule that makes "please" pronounced the same as "pleas"?

13.06.2025 13:44

Whats the rule that makes "please" pronounced the same as "pleas"?

There's no rule.

Please is an anglicization of the French word plaisir.

Whence the <ea> I cannot say but some other words that were spelled <ai> in French are spelled <ea> in English: aise → ease, graisse → grease, fait → feat.

I’m a 25 year old teacher teaching at boys school & I have colleagues younger than me. I caught one of my students telling her he wanted her as his teacher instead & it hurt my feelings. They compliment her a lot. It makes me jealous. What do I do?

Back in the day (circa 1300), it was written <plesen>.

Pleas is spelled <pleas> because it's the plural of pleas.

Words are pronounced the way that they're pronounced.

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If you're curious about why a word is spelled the way it's spelled, your first recourse should be etymonline dot com.

What's (not “whats”) the rule?

While you may reasonably ask why words are spelled the way they're spelled, it makes no sense to ask why they're pronounced the way they're pronounced.

How do you complete “Ciao bell'uomo, come stai oggi, buongiorno signore, sono Jennifer Rose Louis, come ti chiami”?

You'll usually find your answer there.