Learn French: S'il te plaît, sois ponctuel ce soir.

S'il te plaît, sois ponctuel ce soir.

Please, be punctual tonight.

Breakdown of S'il te plaît, sois ponctuel ce soir.

Questions & Answers about S'il te plaît, sois ponctuel ce soir.

Why use sois instead of es if it means "be"?

Because this is a command (the imperative form). For most verbs, the command form looks just like the present tense, but être is irregular. To tell one person (informally) to "be" something, you must use sois.

How do we know this is addressed to one person informally?

The sentence uses s'il te plaît (using the informal pronoun te) instead of s'il vous plaît. It also uses sois, which is the tu (informal singular) command form. They both match up!

Would this sentence change if you were speaking to a woman?

Yes! Adjectives must agree with the person they describe. ponctuel is the masculine form. If you are talking to a woman, you must make it feminine by doubling the L and adding an E: sois ponctuelle.

Why does it say ce soir for "tonight" instead of using the word for "night"?

French usually uses ce soir (literally "this evening") for plans, dates, and events happening before bedtime. The word for night, nuit, is mostly used for the time when you are actually asleep, so you would rarely use cette nuit for evening plans.