7
lorentz
13d

I know it's pedantry but I flinch whenever I read "please RSVP"

Comments
  • 0
    Why? Because it technically translates to "Respond, if it pleases you" - but it's used as if it meant "I demand that you to respond with yes or no"

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    Personally I've let go of my hangup on this, and just accepted that any mention of RSVP now colloquially means "I demand a response".

    Heck, even wikipedia's definition mentions that a possible translation can be "Please respond"

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSVP

    RSVP is an initialism derived from the French phrase Répondez s'il vous plaît" meaning "Respond, if it pleases you", or just "Please respond", to require confirmation of an invitation
  • 4
    @jiraTicket "if it pleases you" or "if you like" is a poor translation of "s'il vous plait", it specifically means "please" in French. This is a fine example of mirror translation losing parts of the original meaning. I flinch because 3/4 of "rsvp" already stands for "please", and the remaining 1/4 is the same root in English. If you want to spell "please" in english, then the translation is "please respond".
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