“Ladies and gentlemen, we're experiencing some turbulence. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts.”

English Lesson: Ladies and gentlemen, we're experiencing some turbulence. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts.

You're on an airplane. The plane is shaking a little bit. The captain makes this announcement to all of the passengers.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're experiencing some turbulence. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts.

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Please (do something).

Writing "Please ___" is a formal way to ask a question. You can use "Please ___":

  • for very important requests
  • when you are angry at someone and don't want to be too friendly with them
  • when you're writing to someone who you don't know
  • when you're writing or making an announcement to a group of people

For a friendlier, but still very polite, way to make a request, you can write:

If you could get back to me by the end of the day, that would be appreciated.

Ladies and gentlemen

Use this phrase to address a group of people (with both men and women) in a formal way. You do this in situations like when you're giving a formal speech, when you're introducing a stage performance, when you're making an announcement over an intercom, etc.

(an airplane) is experiencing turbulence

"Turbulent" air or water is not smooth. It's unpredictable and chaotic. When an airplane flies through turbulent wind, it shakes. To describe this situation, you can say that the airplane "is experiencing turbulence".

"Experience ___" means to go through an unusual situation. This word is also used in the expression "experience outages".

You can also use "experience turbulence" in the past tense like this:

A: How was your flight?

B: We experienced a little turbulence. It freaked me out!

return to your seat

"Return" is a more formal way to say "go back". When you want a stranger to sit back down, say "Please return to your seat."

An example of when you might say this is if you're a teacher, and one of your students is walking around the classroom and distracting other students.

fasten your seatbelt

"Fasten" is a slightly formal word which means to connect something or put something on. Some things that you can "fasten" include:

fasten your belt

fasten a screw

fasten your bra

fasten a harness

"Fastening your seatbelt" means putting your seatbelt on and specifically, connecting the buckle.