Questions & Answers about Пожалуйста, налей мне чай.
What does пожалуйста mean here?
Here пожалуйста means please.
It makes the request more polite. Russian often uses the imperative together with пожалуйста for normal polite requests:
- Скажите, пожалуйста... = Please tell me...
- Дайте, пожалуйста... = Please give me...
So Пожалуйста, налей мне чай is a polite request, not a harsh command.
Why is налей used instead of налить?
Налить is the infinitive, meaning to pour.
Налей is the imperative form, meaning pour! or please pour.
So:
- налить = to pour
- налей = pour!
In this sentence, the speaker is asking someone to do the action, so Russian uses the imperative: налей.
Why is it налей, not наливай?