Visitors may be surprised to discover that "please" doesn't work quite the same way across the Nordic countries – revealing a very different way of thinking about politeness.
Thinking of this later, isn’t our English usage of ‘please’ contracted from ‘if it pleases you’ as in French "s’il vous plaît’? This would be closer to the Norwegian ‘vær så snill’ I mentioned in a previous post, I think? Looking at one source on old English, though, shows ‘Iċ þancie þē’ which looks like ‘I thank thee’ to me. It’s interesting.
Thinking of this later, isn’t our English usage of ‘please’ contracted from ‘if it pleases you’ as in French "s’il vous plaît’? This would be closer to the Norwegian ‘vær så snill’ I mentioned in a previous post, I think? Looking at one source on old English, though, shows ‘Iċ þancie þē’ which looks like ‘I thank thee’ to me. It’s interesting.