Lessons / Leçons: 1 (un)
Greetings and Courtesies/ Salutations et politesse

Dialogue / Dialogue

Formal / Formal

Bonjour Madame Ridelle, comment allez-vous ?

Bonjour Monsieur Boutin, bien et vous-même ?

Très bien, merci.

 

Au revoir Madame.

À bientôt, bonne journée Monsieur.

Merci, vous de même.

Informal / Informal

Salut Marie ! Ça va ?

Hello Jules ! Ça va, et toi ?

Oui, ça va

 

Ciao ! À plus.

À plus tard.

Vocabulary / Vocabulaire

Let’s learn first several words that would help you understand some of the greetings.

oui – yes

bon/bonne – good

bien – well

jour/journée – day

soir/soirée – evening

nuit – night

voir – see

tôt – early – bientôt = soon

vous – you

vous-même – yourself

de même – too, same

bonjour – anytime in the day, you say “bonjour” when you meet someone.

bonsoir – after teatime, or twilight, when you meet someone.

au revoir – to say goodbye, to the next time you see each other

à bientôt – see you soon

à tout à l’heure – same, but in the same day

bonne soirée – have a good evening

bonne journée – have a good day

bonne nuit – good night

French say greetings even to strangers, for instance when they enter a shop, or when then pass someone in a confined place like stairs or lift.

Informal / inFormal

salut – to say “hi” or “bye”. From the word “salut” that can stand for “wave” or “hail”.

ciao – from the Italian, used to say “bye” only

hello – from the English, same as in English

bye – from the English, same as in English

à plus tard (à plus) – same as “à tout l’heure” or “à bientôt”

You also need to know that formal form in French will be expressed by the use of “vous” = “you”, when the singular “you” (or ancient “thou”) is “tu”.

s’il te plait – please

s’il vous plait – please

je t’en prie – you’re welcome (informal)

je vous en prie – you’re welcome (formal)

merci – thank you

merci beaucoup – thank you very much

je te (vous) remercie (beaucoup) – I thank you (very much)

pardon – sorry

excuse-moi – excuse me (informal)

excusez-moi – excuse me (formal)

Note that French doesn’t make so much the difference between “pardon” (sorry) and “excusez-moi” (excuse-me) - the literal translation of “sorry” would be “désolé(e)” – but it’s not as often used as in English. “Pardon” would be the literal translation of “mercy”.

comment vas-tu ? – how are you? (informal)

comment allez-vous ? – how are you? (formal)

More informal ways to say “how are you”:

comment ça va ?

ça va ?

 

To what you would answer:

ça va / pas mal (not bad) / super (great) /

Exercise / Exercice

 

 

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French is still the universal language of love. This is the main reason why the number of people wishing to learn how to speak, read, and write French fluently continue to rise.