Learn Hardcore French: Pouvez-vous apporter l'addition, s'il vous plaît?

Pouvez-vous… ? is the inverted form used especially in formal questions, similar to English “Can you…?” with subject–verb inversion.
Vous pouvez… ? is more like a spoken, less formal question, a bit like saying “You can…?” in English with rising intonation.

In a polite request to a waiter, Pouvez-vous apporter… ? sounds nicely formal and standard. Vous pouvez apporter… ? would be understood but sounds more casual or slightly less polished in this context.

Why is vous used instead of tu?

French distinguishes between:

tu – informal you (friends, family, kids, people your age in casual settings)
vous – formal you (strangers, service staff, anyone you should be polite with, or plural you)

With a waiter in a restaurant, you normally use vous to be polite and respectful. So:

Pouvez-vous apporter l’addition, s’il vous plaît ? → polite, appropriate
Peux-tu apporter l’addition, s’il te plaît ? → would sound rude or overly familiar unless you know the person well.

What does Pouvez-vous literally mean?

Literally:

pouvez = (you-plural / formal you) can / are able to (present tense of pouvoir)
vous = you

With inversion, Pouvez-vous… ? literally means “Are you able (to) … ?” or “Can you…?”.

Why is the verb apporter used here? Could I use amener or donner instead?

French has several “bring/give” verbs, with different nuances:

apporter – to bring an object to a place/person
- apporter l’addition → bring the bill (an object) to the table
amener – to bring/lead a person or animal (or sometimes a vehicle)
- amener un ami → bring a friend
donner – to give (transfer from your possession to someone else’s)
- donner l’addition au client → give the bill to the customer

In a restaurant, asking the waiter to bring the bill is best expressed with apporter.
Amener l’addition sounds wrong (you don’t “lead” a bill), and Pouvez-vous donner l’addition ? is grammatical but less natural as a customer’s request.

What exactly is l’addition? Is it the same as la facture or le reçu?

In restaurant context:

l’addition – the bill/check at a café or restaurant. This is the normal word to use as a customer.
la facture – an invoice/bill in more general or business contexts (electricity bill, company invoice, etc.).
le reçu – the receipt you get after paying.

So in a restaurant you say:
Pouvez-vous apporter l’addition, s’il vous plaît ? → “Can you bring the bill, please?”

You would not normally say la facture in a casual restaurant setting.

Why is it l’addition and not la addition?

Because of elision:

The noun is feminine: la addition.
But French doesn’t like two vowel sounds together, so when la comes before a vowel or silent h, it becomes l’.

So:

la
- addition → l’addition

This is only a spelling and pronunciation rule; the gender stays feminine:

l’addition est prête (not prêt).

What does s’il vous plaît literally mean, and how is it built?

Literally, it’s “if it pleases you”:

si = if
il = it/he
plaît = pleases (from plaire)
vous = you (formal or plural)

si il contracts to s’il (again, to avoid two vowels), so:

s’il vous plaît = if it pleases you → idiomatically please.

So the whole thing is literally:
Pouvez-vous apporter l’addition, s’il vous plaît ? → “Can you bring the bill, if it pleases you?” → “Could you bring the bill, please?”

What’s the difference between s’il vous plaît and s’il te plaît?

Both mean please, but:

s’il vous plaît – formal you or plural you
- Use with strangers, waiters, teachers, or any polite/formal context.
s’il te plaît – informal you (singular)
- Use with close friends, family, children, etc.

They must match the you form you are using:

Pouvez-vous… s’il vous plaît ? (formal)
Peux-tu… s’il te plaît ? (informal)

Mixing them (like Pouvez-vous… s’il te plaît ?) sounds wrong or jarring.

Is this the only natural way to ask for the bill?

No, there are several common options, all polite:

L’addition, s’il vous plaît.
- Short and very common; you can just say this without a verb.
Pouvez-vous apporter l’addition, s’il vous plaît ?
- Slightly more complete/polite, like “Could you bring the bill, please?”
Est-ce que je peux avoir l’addition, s’il vous plaît ?
- Literally “Can I have the bill, please?” – also very common.
Je pourrais avoir l’addition, s’il vous plaît ?
- Softer, “Could I have the bill, please?”

All are fine in a restaurant; the original sentence is one of the more formal-sounding versions.

Why is there a question mark if the word order already shows it’s a question?

French marks questions in several ways, and they can be combined:

Inversion: Pouvez-vous (verb before subject)
Question mark in writing: … ?
Intonation in speech (rising tone at the end)

In writing, you still need the question mark even if you use inversion, just as in English:
Can you bring the bill, please? – the word order and the punctuation both signal a question.

Is there any difference in politeness between saying Pouvez-vous apporter l’addition… and simply L’addition, s’il vous plaît?

Both are polite and perfectly acceptable. The nuance:

L’addition, s’il vous plaît.
- Short, direct, standard. Very common, not rude.
Pouvez-vous apporter l’addition, s’il vous plaît ?
- Slightly more “sentence-like” and can feel a bit more formal or elaborate, similar to “Could you bring the bill, please?”

In everyday life, many people just say L’addition, s’il vous plaît.

How should I pronounce the liaisons in this sentence?

Key points:

Pouvez-vous → you normally make a liaison: pou-vez‿vous
- Final -z of pouvez is pronounced like z linking to vous.
l’addition → la-di-ssion (the t in addition is silent; the ss sound comes from -ti- in French).
s’il vous plaît:
- Final s of vous is usually silent here, no liaison: sil vu plɛ.

So a natural flow is:
Pou-vez‿vous a-por-té la-di-ssion, sil vu plɛ ?