Learn Hardcore Japanese: mousukosi yukkuri hanasite kudasai.

少し / ちょっと by themselves mean “a little / a bit.”
- 少しゆっくり話してください。
  → Please speak a little slowly. (no comparison implied)
もう少し adds the idea of “more than now / than before.”
- もう少しゆっくり話してください。
  → Please speak a bit more slowly (than you’re speaking now).

So もう少し usually implies you already have some amount, and you want an additional amount or an adjustment in the same direction.

Why is there no word for “you” in this sentence?

Japanese often leaves out pronouns like “I” and “you” when they’re clear from context.

In this sentence, you’re obviously talking to the person who is speaking too fast.
So “you” is understood from the situation and doesn’t need to be said.

If you said あなたはもう少しゆっくり話してください, it would be grammatically OK, but:

あなた often sounds unnatural or too direct in many real conversations.
It’s usually better to just say the request without any explicit “you.”

What part of speech is ゆっくり, and why is there no particle after it?

ゆっくり is an adverb-like word (technically, an adverbial noun, 副詞的な名詞).

Here it describes how the action is done:

ゆっくり話す → to speak slowly

In Japanese, adverbs typically appear directly before the verb with no particle:

早く走る → run quickly
上手に書く → write skillfully
ゆっくり話す → speak slowly

So ゆっくり doesn’t need a particle like で here.
(You can see ゆっくりと話す, using と, but that’s more formal/literary.)

Why is the verb 話す in the て‑form (話して) here?

The て‑form + ください is a standard pattern for making a polite request:

話して (て‑form of 話す) + ください → 話してください
→ “Please speak / please talk.”

The basic idea:

Dictionary form (話す) = neutral statement: “(someone) speaks.”
て-form (話して) can connect to ください to soften it into a request.

So:

もう少しゆっくり話す。
→ (Just a statement: “(Someone) speaks a bit more slowly.”)
もう少しゆっくり話してください。
→ Polite: “Please speak a bit more slowly.”

What is the difference between 話してください and 話してください?

Grammatically, they are the same structure:

話して + ください
When written normally, Japanese doesn’t put spaces, so it appears as: 話してください

In teaching materials you might see a space or line break just to visually separate the parts, but in real Japanese writing:

もう少しゆっくり話してください。 is the natural way to write it.

So there’s no difference in meaning; it’s just writing style in a textbook to show structure.

Is ください a verb or something else? And why is it sometimes written as 下さい?

Historically, ください comes from the verb くださる (to give, honorific), but in ～てください it’s treated as a set expression that means:

“please (do X)”

In modern grammar descriptions, ～てください is often considered a polite request pattern, not just a normal verb form.

As for writing:

ください (all in hiragana) is the standard way when it’s used as “please ~”:
- ゆっくり話してください。
下さい (with kanji) is more appropriate when it is used literally as a verb meaning “give me ~”:
- 水を下さい。→ Please give me water.

In practice, many people just use hiragana (ください) for both in everyday writing.

How polite is ～てください? Is this phrase polite enough to use with strangers?

～てください is polite, but it’s a direct request.
Your sentence:

もう少しゆっくり話してください。

is:

Perfectly fine with teachers, store staff, clerks, people who are talking to you quickly, etc.
Polite enough for most everyday situations.

For extra politeness or to sound softer/less direct, you could say:

もう少しゆっくり話していただけますか。
もう少しゆっくり話してもらえますか。

These sound more like “Could you possibly…?” rather than direct “Please do …”.

Can I drop ください and just say もう少しゆっくり話して?

Yes, you can, but the tone changes:

もう少しゆっくり話して。
- Casual, used with friends, family, people of equal or lower status.
- Similar to “Speak a bit more slowly, okay?” in tone.
もう少しゆっくり話してください。
- Polite, safer with strangers, teachers, coworkers, etc.

So dropping ください makes it less polite and more casual/colloquial.

Why is the word order もう少しゆっくり話してください and not something like 話してもう少しゆっくりください?

In Japanese, the usual pattern is:

Adverbs / adverb-like words that describe degree, manner, time, etc.
Then the main verb
Then any auxiliary elements (like ください)

So:

もう少し (degree: a bit more)
ゆっくり (manner: slowly)
話して (main verb: speak)
ください (request: please)

This order is natural and easy to process for native speakers.
Switching it around like 話してもう少しゆっくりください is ungrammatical and confusing.

Could I use 言う or しゃべる instead of 話す here? What would change?

You could, but the nuance changes:

話す
- General “to speak / to talk.”
- Neutral and commonly used in this kind of request.
- もう少しゆっくり話してください。→ Please speak a bit more slowly.
言う
- “To say (words)” / “to tell.”
- もう少しゆっくり言ってください。
  → “Please say it a bit more slowly.”
- Focuses more on how you say specific words or phrases.
しゃべる
- More casual “to chat / to talk.”
- もう少しゆっくりしゃべってください。
  → Grammatically OK, but しゃべる feels more informal or a bit rough in some contexts.
- Sounds less polite than using 話す.

For a polite, standard, classroom-friendly sentence, 話す is the safest choice.

What exactly is the nuance of もう here? I thought もう meant “already.”

もう has several common meanings; two big ones are:

“already / no longer” (time-related)
- もう食べました。→ I already ate.
- もう行きません。→ I won’t go anymore.
“more / further” (degree-related)
- もう少し → a little more
- もう一度 → one more time

In もう少し, it’s the “more / further” meaning:

もう少しゆっくり話してください。
→ Please speak a bit more slowly (than now).

So here もう is not about time; it’s about increasing the degree of “slow.”

Is this sentence closer to an order like “Speak more slowly” or a polite request like “Could you speak more slowly?”?

Nuance-wise, ～てください is between a polite order and a polite request:

It’s grammatically a request, but more direct than English “Could you…?”
Context and tone of voice decide whether it feels:
- Like a firm but polite instruction (e.g. teacher to student), or
- Like a normal polite request (you to a clerk, friend’s parent, etc.).

Your sentence is most naturally interpreted in English as:

“Please speak a bit more slowly.”
or
“Could you speak a bit more slowly?” (for a more natural English feeling).

Why are there spaces between the words here? I thought Japanese usually doesn’t use spaces.

You’re right: standard Japanese writing does not use spaces between words.

Textbooks and teaching materials often add spaces:

To help beginners see where one word ends and the next begins.
To make it easier to learn vocabulary and grammar.

In normal Japanese writing, your sentence would appear as:

もう少しゆっくり話してください。

with no spaces at all.