Few things shape a first impression in France quite like the way you say hello. Get your French greetings right and doors open: shopkeepers warm up, colleagues relax, and strangers meet your eye. Get them wrong and you can seem cold or careless without ever intending to. The good news is that greeting people in French follows a small set of friendly, learnable patterns. Once you understand when to be formal, when to be casual, and how the famous cheek kiss actually works, you will feel at home saying hello anywhere from a Paris café to a family dinner in Marseille.
This guide walks you through the greetings that matter most in everyday life, the polite responses that go with them, and the cultural cues that native speakers read instinctively. Keep it handy while you build your core French vocabulary, and you will greet people with real confidence.
Formal vs. informal: the vous and tu decision
Before you can greet someone in French, you have to make one quiet decision: are you being formal or informal? French has two words for “you.” Vous is the polite, respectful form, used with strangers, older people, shopkeepers, officials, and anyone in a professional setting. Tu is the familiar form, reserved for friends, family, children, classmates, and people who have invited you to use it.
The safe rule for learners is simple: when in doubt, use vous. Starting formal and being invited to switch to tu is completely normal; the French even have a verb for it, tutoyer. Jumping to tu uninvited, on the other hand, can feel over-familiar. This vous/tu split runs through the entire language, so if you want to understand how these forms behave across sentences, our guide to French pronouns is a natural next step.
Bonjour, Bonsoir, and Salut: choosing your hello
French has different greetings depending on the time of day and how well you know someone. Bonjour is your everyday workhorse. It literally means “good day,” and you can use it with almost anyone from morning until early evening. In France, saying bonjour when you enter a shop, a waiting room, or an elevator is not optional politeness; it is expected. Skipping it can read as rude.
Bonsoir means “good evening” and takes over once the day winds down, roughly from 6 p.m. onward. Salut is the casual “hi” you use with friends and family; it works as both a hello and a goodbye, but never with your boss or a stranger. And then there is Coucou, an affectionate, playful “hey there” you might send to a close friend or a child. Here is how the main options compare.
| French | English | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Bonjour | Hello / Good day | Anyone, morning to early evening; the default polite greeting |
| Bonsoir | Good evening | From roughly 6 p.m.; formal or informal |
| Salut | Hi / Bye | Friends and family only; casual, works both ways |
| Coucou | Hey there | Very warm and playful; close friends, kids, texts |
| Enchanté(e) | Nice to meet you | When introduced to someone for the first time |
| Rebonjour | Hello again | Greeting the same person a second time in a day |
One small detail native speakers love: Enchanté (for a man) or Enchantée (for a woman) means “delighted” and is the classic thing to say when you are introduced to someone new. It is warm, correct, and instantly makes you sound at ease.
“How are you?” and how to answer
After hello comes the check-in. The formal version is Comment allez-vous? (“How are you?”), used with people you address as vous. Among friends you will hear Comment vas-tu? or, far more commonly, the effortless Ça va? — literally “It goes?” The beauty of Ça va? is that it is both the question and the answer: someone asks “Ça va?” and you reply “Ça va, et toi?” (“Good, and you?”).
Unlike the English “How are you?”, which often expects nothing but “Fine,” the French version can invite a genuine short answer. Keep it light and return the question. Here are the responses that will carry you through almost any exchange.
| French | English | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Comment allez-vous? | How are you? (formal) | With vous: strangers, elders, professional settings |
| Ça va? | How’s it going? | Casual, everyday; works as question and answer |
| Ça va bien, merci | I’m well, thank you | Safe, friendly reply to almost anyone |
| Très bien, et vous? | Very well, and you? | Polite reply that returns the question (formal) |
| Ça va, et toi? | Good, and you? | Relaxed reply among friends |
| Pas mal | Not bad | Honest, low-key; fine with friends |
| Comme ci, comme ça | So-so | When things are only okay |
Notice how the reply mirrors the register of the question: answer Comment allez-vous? with et vous?, and answer Ça va? with et toi?. Matching the formality is a small habit that makes your French sound natural. If you want to sharpen the verbs hiding inside these phrases, aller and être are worth studying in our French verb conjugation guide.
Saying goodbye: from Au revoir to Bonne journée
French farewells are just as expressive as its hellos. Au revoir (“goodbye,” literally “until we see each other again”) is the polite all-purpose option. For friends, Salut doubles as “bye,” and À bientôt (“see you soon”) or À tout à l’heure (“see you later today”) add warmth. If you know when you will next meet, be specific: À demain (“see you tomorrow”) or À lundi (“see you Monday”).
The touch that most delights French speakers, though, is the well-wish. As you leave, add Bonne journée (“have a good day”), Bonne soirée (“have a good evening”), or Bon week-end (“have a good weekend”). Shopkeepers say it constantly, and returning it warmly marks you as someone who understands the rhythm of French courtesy. For the full spectrum of farewells, from casual to heartfelt, see our companion piece on ways of saying goodbye in French.
La bise: the cheek-kiss etiquette
No guide to French greetings is complete without la bise, the light cheek kiss exchanged when friends and family meet. It is not a real kiss but a gentle touch of cheeks with a soft “mwah” sound in the air. Men typically shake hands with other men and reserve la bise for women and close friends, while women greet nearly everyone they know with it. In professional first meetings, a handshake is the norm; la bise belongs to social and family life.
Here is where visitors get delightfully confused: the number of kisses varies by region. Most of France defaults to two, but it can be one, three, or even four depending on where you are. When in doubt, follow the other person’s lead, start by offering your right cheek, and do not worry about getting it perfectly. Locals expect newcomers to hesitate, and a friendly smile smooths over any awkward near-miss.
| Region / situation | Typical number of kisses | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Paris and much of central France | Two | The most common default |
| Parts of the south (e.g. Provence) | Three | Right cheek first is common |
| Parts of the north | Four | Yes, really — follow the local lead |
| Some western areas | One | A single quick cheek touch |
| Professional first meeting | None | Shake hands instead |
When to switch from Bonjour to Bonsoir
One question learners ask constantly is exactly when bonjour becomes bonsoir. There is no official cutoff, but in practice the switch happens in the early evening, somewhere around 6 p.m., or when the working day ends and the sky begins to dim. In winter, when it gets dark early, people slide into bonsoir sooner; in summer they may keep saying bonjour later. Trust the context and the light. If you hear the person greet you first, simply mirror their choice.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Forgetting to greet at all. Launching straight into a question in a shop without a bonjour is the most common misstep. Always greet first.
- Using Salut with strangers or superiors. It is charming with friends and jarring with a manager or an official. Default to bonjour.
- Saying Bonjour twice. If you have already greeted someone earlier the same day, use Rebonjour instead of repeating bonjour.
- Mismatching the register. Do not answer a formal Comment allez-vous? with a breezy et toi? Keep vous with vous.
- Over-thinking la bise. A stiff, anxious approach is more awkward than a relaxed one. Smile, follow the lead, and let it happen.
- Forgetting the send-off. Leaving without a Bonne journée or Au revoir feels abrupt. The goodbye matters as much as the hello.
Practising these out loud is the fastest way to make them automatic. If you enjoy training your mouth on French sounds, our playful set of French tongue twisters will loosen up your pronunciation while you are at it. And if you are studying several languages at once, it is fascinating to compare how Spanish greetings and German greetings handle the same formal-versus-friendly balance.
For authoritative reference and pronunciation, the free resources at TV5MONDE’s Learn French and the definitions in the Larousse dictionary are excellent companions as you build the habit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Bonjour formal or informal?
Bonjour is neutral, which is exactly why it is so useful. You can say it to a stranger, a shopkeeper, a colleague, or a friend without sounding either stiff or over-casual. When you need a purely casual hello, use Salut; when you need extra warmth with someone close, use Coucou.
What is the difference between Ça va and Comment allez-vous?
Both ask “How are you?”, but the register differs. Comment allez-vous? is formal and pairs with vous, so use it with strangers, elders, and in professional settings. Ça va? is casual and everyday; it works as both the question and a quick reply among friends and acquaintances.
How many kisses do the French give?
It depends on the region. Two is the most common, especially around Paris, but you will find one, three, or four in different parts of the country. When you are unsure, offer your right cheek first and follow the other person’s lead. In professional first meetings, shake hands rather than kiss.
When should I use tu instead of vous?
Use tu with friends, family, children, classmates, and anyone who has invited you to. Use vous with strangers, older people, officials, and in any professional context. When in doubt, start with vous — it is always safer to be too polite than too familiar, and people will happily invite you to switch to tu.
How do I politely say goodbye in French?
The all-purpose polite goodbye is Au revoir. Add a well-wish such as Bonne journée (“have a good day”) or Bonne soirée (“have a good evening”) to sound genuinely courteous. With friends, Salut, À bientôt, or À demain all work beautifully.
Ready to greet France with confidence? At The Cognitio, our friendly native and expert tutors help you practise real French conversation from your very first hello — vous, tu, la bise and all. Book a class with The Cognitio and start speaking French naturally today.