# Please delete the file from your hard drive



## polyglotguy

My guess is:
"Proszę usunąć plik z dysku twardego."

Thanks in advance for any help!


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## Rusak963

Looks fine to me.


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## majlo

I find it correct apart from one very minor thing: in Polish we put a period after the quotation mark.


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## parasceptic

I think we also rarely come across "proszę" in various interfaces and manuals. We are simply told to do things. In this case I'd go for "Usuń plik z dysku twardego".


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## majlo

Who said it was an interface or a manual?


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## parasceptic

majlo said:


> Who said it was an interface or a manual?



You're right... Ignore my remark if it was a personal request  I just wanted to point out the difference between instructions in English (which in e.g. manuals are typically "polite") and in Polish (which are recomended to be strictly imperative and all the "proszę"s are considered redundant).


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## majlo

There's no need to ignore anything.  I also believe it's worth pinpointing some side notes. 

Anyway, that was a very pertinent remark: political correctness is far more ubiquitous in English than in Polish. I would never even think of putting "please" in an interface or a manual (providing, of course, it is one). That just doesn't make any sense. What? Some guy who wrote it and doesn't even know you wants to be polite? Come on.


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## parasceptic

I also find it puzzling (in the domain of IT) - why would anybody kindly request me to follow steps that just have to be taken when there is a problem that I hope to solve (and therefore *I ask* for intructions)? From a helpdesk I'd expect orders, not courtesy


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## Szkot

I tried googling "proszę zrestartować" and there is plenty of polite assistance around; especially this one which to me sounds quite obsequious with all the proszę's and Państwo's. 



> ... political correctness is far more ubiquitous in English than in Polish.


Possibly, but saying please is not political correctness - actually it is often not politeness either.


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## parasceptic

Szkot said:


> I tried googling "proszę zrestartować"



Have you tried googling the _rude_ alternative "zrestartuj"? (Not to mention what I would consider the best equivalent of "please restart" -> "uruchom ponownie".)



Szkot said:


> especially this one



Too bad I can't see that one. I'm curious about the context of using all these polite expressions you quote - because at least in the technical texts which are meant to be instructive and carry some information, such polite words are often advised to be simply left out.


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## majlo

Szkot said:


> Possibly, but saying please is not political correctness - actually it is often not politeness either.



I'm not surprised actually. The English word "please" (similarly to "friend") is so "worn-out" in comparison to its Polish equivalent that it might be difficult to extract politeness from it.  When I lived in the UK, I sometimes felt like I was a sheep hunkering down among a pack of wolves; wolves being of course all the "thank you's", "please's" etc. 

I would not be surprised to see "please" in an interface command or a manual either; in English that is. In Polish I would just give it a bantering smile. 

By the way, I can't open that link either.


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## Ben Jamin

majlo said:


> There's no need to ignore anything.  I also believe it's worth pinpointing some side notes.
> 
> Anyway, that was a very pertinent remark: political correctness is far more ubiquitous in English than in Polish. I would never even think of putting "please" in an interface or a manual (providing, of course, it is one). That just doesn't make any sense. What? Some guy who wrote it and doesn't even know you wants to be polite? Come on.


 
Why do you call this "political correctness"? It is politeness. Political correctness is something else. Look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness

Besides, "Please" is not usually used in data manuals.


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## majlo

Even if it's not political correctness (which I'm having trouble to agree with, even after having read the wikipedia article on it), it's overpoliteness, which I'm not particularly fond of.


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