ပါ

Polite Requests

Level 1

ပေးပါ on its own means "please give me", so လက်ဖက်ရည် ပေးပါ။ asks for tea.

How It Works

To ask someone to do something, use the verb with ပါ. The person is left out, as in English please sit.

Plain orderPolite requestMeaning
ထိုင်။ထိုင်ပါ။Please sit down.
စောင့်။စောင့်ပါ။Please wait.
ပေး။ပေးပါ။Please give me.

Use ပါ with everyone outside your close friends and family: taxi drivers, waiters, shop staff and teachers. A request to a taxi driver is simply ဒီမှာ ရပ်ပါ။ (Please stop here).

ပါ also goes inside statements to make them polite, as in ကျေးဇူးတင်ပါတယ်။ That use is the next entry.

For extra respect, add ခင်ဗျာ or ရှင် after ပါ, as in ထိုင်ပါရှင်။

Examples (5)

  1. ခဏစောင့်ပါ။

    Please wait a moment.

    ပါ after စောင့် (wait) makes it a polite request.

  2. ဖြည်းဖြည်း ပြောပါ။

    Please speak slowly.

    ပါ follows the verb ပြော (speak).

  3. ရေ တစ်ခွက် ပေးပါ။

    A glass of water, please.

    ပေးပါ asks someone to give you something.

  4. ဝင်ပါခင်ဗျာ။

    Please come in.

    A man adds ခင်ဗျာ after ပါ for extra respect.

  5. ဒီမှာ ရပ်ပါ။

    Please stop here.

    A polite request to a taxi driver.

Common Mistakes

  • Giving a bare order to a stranger.

    ထိုင်။
    ထိုင်ပါ။

    A bare verb sounds like a command. Add ပါ to make it a polite request.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

ပါLevel 1Polite Requests

Learn This First

A polite request adds ပါ to the verb phrase, so learners first see how a verb phrase is built.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

ပါ