Word
Ouvre la bouche, s'il te plaît.
Meaning
Open your mouth, please.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Ouvre la bouche, s'il te plaît.
ouvrir
to open
s'il te plaît
please (informal)
la bouche
the mouth
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Questions & Answers about Ouvre la bouche, s'il te plaît.
Why is it ouvre without an 's' if it's the tu form?
In French commands (the imperative mood), you drop the final 's' for verbs ending in -er when talking to a tu. Even though ouvrir ends in -ir, it is conjugated exactly like an -er verb. So the present tense tu ouvres becomes the command ouvre.
The English translation says 'your mouth'. Why does the French say la bouche instead of ta bouche?
When referring to body parts, French usually uses definite articles like le, la, or les (the) instead of possessive adjectives like mon or ton (my/your). Because you are giving a command directly to the person, it is already completely clear whose mouth is opening, making ta unnecessary.
How can we tell this sentence is directed at someone we know well?
What is the literal breakdown of s'il te plaît?