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Please vs What - What's the difference?

please | what |

As adverbs the difference between please and what

is that please is or please can be [http://wwwdaredictionarycom/view/dare/id_00044218] while what is in some manner or degree; in part; partly; usually followed by with .

As a verb please

is (label) to make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.

As a pronoun what is

(interrogative) which thing, event, circumstance, etc: used interrogatively in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.

As an interjection what is

.

As a determiner what is

which; which kind of.

As a noun what is

(obsolete) something; thing; stuff.

please

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) ).

Alternative forms

* (l)

Verb

(pleas)
  • (label) To make happy or satisfy; to give pleasure to.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./1/1
  • , passage=And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties?; and his expectations had waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay, […].}}
  • To desire; to will; to be pleased by.
  • * Bible, (Psalms) cxxxv. 6
  • Whatsoever the Lord pleased , that did he.
    Synonyms
    * (to make happy) satisfy * (to desire) desire, will
    Antonyms
    * (to make happy) annoy, irritate, disgust, displease

    Etymology 2

    Short for if you please, an intransitive, ergative form taken from which replaced pray .

    Alternative forms

    * (for the exaggerated way it is often pronounced as the expression of annoyance) puh-lease

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Please , pass the bread.
    Would you please sign this form?
    Could you tell me the time, please ?
  • May I help you? —Please .
  • Oh, please , do we have to hear that again?
    Derived terms
    * pretty please

    Etymology 3

    Calque of (etyl) [//books.google.com/books?id=4e7XLGfekD8C&pg=PA16][http://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/how-to-speak-cincinnatiese/]

    Adverb

    (-)
  • [http://www.daredictionary.com/view/dare/ID_00044218]
  • * 1973: "Bitte or Bitter?", , August 1973, p. 109 [//books.google.com/books?id=CesCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA109]
  • Fellow: May I have a few days off to get married?
    Reply, in the Cincinnati idiom by a boss who had heard the sound but not the sense:
    Boss: Please ?
  • * 1978: Virginia Watson-Rouslin, "A Foreign View", Cincinnati , September 1978, p. 110 [//books.google.com/books?id=cesCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA110]
  • Even though I heard it was supposed to be German-Catholic background, there’s only one thing German — they say ‘please ’ [for the more common ‘pardon me’], which comes from bitte .
  • * 1979: "Winners: Contest No. 13—The Laugh’s On Us", Cincinnati , September 1979, volume 12, issue 12, p. 15 [//books.google.com/books?id=dusCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15]
  • “…He explained in broken English that one of his daughters was ill and he probably could not be there. I did not understand all that he said, so asked, ‘Please ?’ per Cincinnati custom. ‘There is no need to plead. I will be there if she is feeling better,’ he replied.”
  • * 1998: Jose I. Sarasua, "Come to Cincinnati... Please?", Cost Engineering , volume 40, issue 5, 5 May 1998, p. 9 [http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/editorials/664754/come-cincinnati-please]
  • Cincinnati are some of the most polite persons I have ever met in the US. When asking someone a question, instead of saying “Excuse me,” or “Pardon,” they say “Please ?”
  • * 2001: Jeff Robinson, "Say what?", Ohio Magazine , April 2001, p. 77 [http://lrc.ohio.edu/lrcmedia/Streaming/lingCALL/ling270/saywhat.pdf?page=2]
  • By the same token, one contestant who doesn’t hear a particular question could say “Pardon me?” while another could say “Please ?” Again, neither would be lying if he said he was from Ohio.
  • * 2008: , The Secret Life of Words: How English Became English , ISBN 0374254109, p. 255 [//books.google.com/books?id=3eerb4RTYF8C&pg=PA255]
  • In Maine, where as much as a quarter of the population has French ancestry, you may hear a stray hair called a couette'', and in parts of Ohio ''please'' is used in the same way as the German ''bitte , to invite a person to repeat something just said – apparently a remnant of the bilingual schooling once available in Cincinnati.
  • * 2011: Ellen McIntyre, Nancy Hulan, Vicky Layne, Reading Instruction for Diverse Classrooms: Research-Based, Culturally Responsive Practice , Guilford Press, ISBN 1609180569, p. 72 [//books.google.com/books?id=m7BAOCj8mHQC&pg=PA72]
  • Ellen grew up outside of Cincinnati and believed her own talk was the “norm,” while others were speakers of dialects. She was in graduate school before she learned that not all people say, Please ?'' to mean ''Can you repeat that?
    Synonyms
    * (request to repeat) what, excuse me, pardon me, come again

    References

    Statistics

    *

    what

    English

    (wikipedia what)

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • (interrogative) Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used interrogatively in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.
  • (relative, nonstandard) That; which.
  • * 1902 , , (The Admirable Crichton) :
  • That’s her; that’s the thing what has stole his heart from me.
  • (relative) That which; those that; the thing that.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=48, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= The tao of tech , passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast […, or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",

    Adverb

    (-)
  • In some manner or degree; in part; partly; usually followed by with .
  • Such.
  • (label) Why?
  • * (rfdate) (Chaucer)
  • What should I tell the answer of the knight?
  • * (rfdate) (John Milton)
  • But what do I stand reckoning upon advantages and gains lost by the misrule and turbulency of the prelates?
  • Used to introduce each of two coordinate phrases or concepts; both…and.
  • * :
  • And as for on C good knyghtes I haue my self / but I fawte / l / for so many haue ben slayne in my dayes / and so Ladegreans delyuerd his doughter Gweneuer vnto Merlyn / and the table round with the C knyghtes / and so they rode fresshly with grete royalte / what' by water and ' what by land / tyl that they came nyghe vnto london

    Synonyms

    * such

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • * 1605 Wm. Shakespeare, King Lear
  • What , have his daughters brought him to this pass?
    What ! That’s amazing.
  • (British, colloquial, dated) Is that not true?
  • It’s a nice day, what'''?'' (sometimes repeated, e.g.: '''''What'''-'''what ? )

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • Which; which kind of.
  • What shirt are you going to wear?
    What time is it?
    What kind of car is that?
  • How much; how great (used in an exclamation).
  • What talent he has!
    What a talent!

    Derived terms

    * wat * what ho * whatness * what's what

    Noun

    (-)
  • (obsolete) something; thing; stuff
  • * Spenser
  • They prayd him sit, and gave him for to feed / Such homely what as serves the simple clowne, / That doth despise the dainties of the towne

    Statistics

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