Breakdown of Pouvez-vous, s'il vous plaît, laisser un commentaire sur l'application?
Questions & Answers about Pouvez-vous, s'il vous plaît, laisser un commentaire sur l'application?
French has a special structure for yes/no questions: subject–verb inversion.
- Vous pouvez laisser un commentaire. = You can leave a comment. (statement)
- Pouvez-vous laisser un commentaire ? = Can you leave a comment? (question)
To form this type of question:
- Take the verb (pouvez) in its conjugated form.
- Add a hyphen.
- Put the subject pronoun (vous) after it: pouvez-vous.
So pouvez-vous is just the inverted question form of vous pouvez. Both are grammatically correct, but pouvez-vous… ? sounds a bit more formal and polite than vous pouvez… ? with questioning intonation.
Yes, you absolutely can say:
- Est-ce que vous pouvez laisser un commentaire sur l'application ?
Three main ways to ask this question:
Pouvez-vous laisser un commentaire… ?
- Inversion, slightly formal, common in writing and polite speech.
Est-ce que vous pouvez laisser un commentaire… ?
- Very common in spoken French, neutral register, easy to use.
Vous pouvez laisser un commentaire… ? (with rising intonation)
- More informal, very common in speech.
All three mean the same thing. The sentence you have (Pouvez-vous… ?) just sounds a bit more polite/formal.
S'il vous plaît is what we call an inserted polite phrase. In writing, French often sets it off with commas, like this:
- Pouvez-vous, s'il vous plaît, laisser un commentaire… ?
You might also see:
- S'il vous plaît, pouvez-vous laisser un commentaire… ?
- Pouvez-vous laisser un commentaire, s'il vous plaît ?
So:
- The commas are recommended because s'il vous plaît is not grammatically required; it’s an extra polite element.
- In casual writing (texts, chats), people often skip one or both commas, but in careful writing, the commas are preferred.
Both mean please, but:
S'il vous plaît
- Uses vous.
- Formal singular (to a stranger, client, older person, etc.) or plural (talking to more than one person).
- This is the polite, safe default.
S'il te plaît
- Uses te (tu-form).
- Informal singular only (friends, family, children, people you are on tu terms with).
In your sentence, vous is used, so s'il vous plaît is the correct matching form.
The verb laisser literally means to leave (to let something remain somewhere), and in this context it matches English leave a comment:
- laisser un commentaire = to leave a comment
- laisser un avis = to leave a review / rating
So the structure is very close to English: leave + [comment/review] = laisser + [commentaire/avis].
You could also see:
- mettre un commentaire (more colloquial: “to put a comment”)
- écrire un commentaire (“to write a comment”)
But laisser un commentaire is very standard and natural.
After a conjugated form of pouvoir (pouvez), French uses the infinitive:
- pouvez-vous laisser = can you leave
Structure: pouvoir (conjugated) + infinitive
Examples:
- Je peux venir. = I can come.
- Nous pouvons partir. = We can leave.
- Pouvez-vous m’aider ? = Can you help me?
So:
- pouvez-vous laisser (correct)
- not pouvez-vous laissez
- not pouvez-vous laissant
- not pouvez-vous de laisser
The infinitive laisser is the standard form after pouvez.
Un commentaire means a (single) comment, not a specific one that is already known. The speaker is asking you to leave one comment, in a general way.
- un commentaire = a comment (any comment)
- le commentaire = the comment (a particular, identified comment)
- des commentaires = some comments (more than one)
In app-store or app-interface language, the usual French phrasing is laisser un commentaire (or laisser un avis), using the indefinite article un.
Prepositions with technology are a bit idiomatic in French.
sur l'application literally means on the app.
- This is the standard way to talk about actions through or via an app’s interface:
- acheter sur l’application = buy on the app
- réserver sur l’application = book on the app
- laisser un commentaire sur l’application = leave a comment on the app
- This is the standard way to talk about actions through or via an app’s interface:
dans l'application (in the app) is less common here and sounds more like physically inside the app environment, and is usually not used for this formula.
à l'application is not correct in this context.
So sur l'application is the natural collocation.
Yes, application is feminine in French: une application, la application in theory.
However, French uses elision: when la is followed by a vowel sound, it drops the a and is written l':
- la
- application → l'application
Examples:
- la école → l'école
- la information → l'information
- la application → l'application
So l'application is just the elided form of la application.
Yes, if you’re speaking informally to one person (friend, family, etc.), you would use tu instead of vous:
- Peux-tu, s'il te plaît, laisser un commentaire sur l'application ?
Changes:
- Pouvez-vous → Peux-tu (verb and pronoun both change)
- s'il vous plaît → s'il te plaît (to match tu)
Everything else stays the same.
Yes. In very formal or very polite written French, instead of Pouvez-vous… ?, you might see an imperative with “veuillez”:
- Veuillez, s'il vous plaît, laisser un commentaire sur l'application.
This is more formal, often used in official messages, emails, instructions, or signs.
Meaning: Please kindly leave a comment on the app.
So the politeness scale (most neutral → very formal) might look like:
- Pouvez-vous laisser un commentaire… ? (polite, normal)
- Est-ce que vous pouvez laisser un commentaire… ? (neutral/polite)
- Veuillez laisser un commentaire… (very formal/polite).
S'il vous plaît is made of:
- si = if
- il = he/it (historically “it”)
- vous plaît = pleases you
The apostrophe in s'il is elision again:
- si
- il → s'il (the vowel i is kept, il stays, written together)
Literally, s'il vous plaît means if it pleases you → if it pleases you, [do this], which corresponds to English please.
It’s a fixed expression, so you just learn s'il vous plaît as the standard polite please in the vous form.