# "Please RSVP" - redundant?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-rsvp-redundant/520443
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 8, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-rsvp-redundant/520443 "2009-12-08T14:00:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2009, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-rsvp-redundant/520443/41 "2009-12-09T23:20:00Z")
I have heard RSVP described as an acronym for **R** e **s** pond **V** ery **P** romptly. Yeah it’s a bit of a manipulation, but it makes it English.
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### Author:  [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2009, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-rsvp-redundant/520443/42 "2009-12-10T01:04:35Z")
> [@Raza](#):
>
> Am I wrong to be irked when our local PBS radio station gives an announcement of, say, a seminar on possum smoking, then follows it with “RSVP is required” or “RSVP at [norsablab.com](http://norsablab.com)”? It seems inappropriate to use “RSVP” for a public announcement, since obviously they don’t want thousands of people responding with “Mrs. Stinkwort and I will not be attending.”
You’re not the only one. This is one of my pet peeves. People who do that clearly have no idea what RSVP mean.
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### Author:  [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2009, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-rsvp-redundant/520443/43 "2009-12-10T01:38:57Z")
I’ve heard _regrets only_ for invitations where you’re supposed to tell them if you won’t attend - but what do you say if you only want people telling you that they _will_ attend?
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### Author:  [@Waffle\_Decider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waffle_Decider)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-rsvp-redundant/520443/44 "2009-12-10T02:45:30Z")
Probably something along the line of ‘Please contact X to reserve your place’…
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### Author:  [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-rsvp-redundant/520443/45 "2009-12-10T03:49:34Z")
When I was a kid, I learned what RSVP stood for and meant. At that point, I know I parsed it as a French phrase, and probably considered a “Please” to be redundant. However, I didn’t have much opportunity to use it. Now that I’m married to the Evite Queen of Chicago, though, I think of RSVP as an English word and the “Please” as softening what would otherwise sound like a command. In addition to the verb form at [m-w.com](http://m-w.com), I also use it as a noun: “How many RSVPs did we get?”. I wonder if nouning it divorces it from the French more than just verbing it.
Like some of the posters here, I am very liberal on the question of proper words and grammar, but I do object to using apostrophes to inflect acronyms. Mostly on aesthetic grounds.
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### Author:  [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-rsvp-redundant/520443/46 "2009-12-10T04:33:05Z")
Ha. I just wrestled with this one.
(Canada by the way. It is assumed everyone has at least a smattering of French and knows what S il vous plait means.)
I just sent out birthday party invitations to my son’s entire class. All kinds of pleases and thank yous. But since its being sent out to a class of kids in FRENCH IMMERSION it says RSVP to (phone number), ask for \*\*Mona Lisa Simpson \*\*or **Horatio Nelson Muntz** No redundant pleases or thank yous.
However, people have been slow to Respond **ent.**
And Hortatio Nelson Muntz thinks its redundant, but he is French.
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