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

Last Updated: 24.06.2025 15:11

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

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

Words are pronounced the way that they're pronounced.

Please is an anglicization of the French word plaisir.

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?

There's no rule.

You'll usually find your answer there.

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

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What's (not “whats”) the rule?

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

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.

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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.