Kan du hjelpe meg litt, er du snill? Kan dere vente litt, er dere snille?
Can you help me a little, please? (Here you are talking to one person.) Can you wait a little, please? (Here you are talking to two or more people.)
This brings us to the tricky, but handy, phrase Vær så snill.
Vaer så snill ≈ Please
Norwegian does not have a set phrase that is exactly equivalent to the English please. You may be told that the Norwegian equivalent is Vær så snill (lit.: Be so kind), but this is not quite true. It’s not a set, unchanging phrase. Since you are asking someone to be so kind as to do something, the phrase will change depending on how many people you are talking to. The verb will also change, depending on context. Or in grammatical terms: Vær is the verb å være (to be), which means it will be conjugated. The adjective snill (kind) will also be subject to declension, and can occur in the plural: snille. The most common form uses an auxiliary verb to express a question: Vil du være så snill å vente her? Will you (sing.) please wait here? Kan dere være så snille å hjelpe meg? Can you (pl.) please help me? Kunne du være så snill å fortelle Could you be so kind as to tell me where … meg hvor …? It’s also very common to add the phrase onto a request, in which case the være is in the present tense, and the verb form is er: Vent her, er du snill! Hjelp meg litt, er dere snille!
Wait here, please! Help me a little, please!
It is important to note that there aren’t all that many situations where it is natural to use the phrase Vær så snill in a completely unaltered form. It is a humble request for someone to be very kind to you, and the phrase sounds a little childish and submissive. So if you’re caught parking somewhere you shouldn’t, it might be natural to say it: Ikke skriv ut boten! Vær så snill!
Don’t give me a ticket! Please! I’m begging you!
Whereas if you’re asking a co-worker or other peer to do you a favour, you would normally formulate the request in the way we saw above: Kunne du være så snill å hjelpe meg? Could you please help me? However, when one wants to modify the impact of a command or order, one may use the unaltered phrase, and would then begin the sentence with Vær så snill: Vær så snill å vente utenfor gjerdet. Please wait outside the fence. Vær så snill å flytte bilen. Please move your car.
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