French Greetings: The Real Rules Nobody Tells You

You're probably wondering how to actually greet people in French without sounding like a textbook robot or accidentally insulting someone's grandmother.

Here's the thing—French greetings aren't just about memorizing "bonjour" and calling it a day. The French take this stuff seriously. Like, they'll judge your entire cultural intelligence based on your form of address—whether you say tu or vous to the wrong person. No pressure.

Look, I'm not going to dump every possible French greeting on you. Instead, I'll tell you what actually matters when you're trying to have real conversations with native French speakers.

The Greetings You'll Actually Use

Bonjour is your best friend. It's the most common French greeting and works from morning until about 5-6 PM. Formal or informal, doesn't matter—bonjour fits everywhere. Meeting your French teacher? Bonjour. Walking into a bakery? Bonjour. Running into your neighbor? Always say bonjour.

The pronunciation is straightforward: "bohn-ZHOOR." The "r" sound is guttural, from the back of your throat—something English speakers struggle with at first, but you'll get it.

Here's something textbooks get wrong: they'll tell you to say "bon matin" for good morning or "bon après-midi" for good afternoon. Don't. Native speakers consider these anglicisms (basically weird English translations that nobody actually says). Just stick with bonjour for the entire day until evening hits.

Bonsoir takes over in the evening—typically after 5-6 PM, depending on the time of year and region. Same deal as bonjour, but after the sun starts setting. The cool thing about bonsoir is you can use it as both hello AND goodbye during evening hours, which is handy. It means "good evening" literally, but functions as a general greeting.

Salut is your casual "hi" or "hey." This informal French greeting works with friends, people your age, coworkers you're friendly with. Don't use it with your boss, elderly people, or anyone you just met in a formal setting. The final "t" is silent, by the way—common practice in French pronunciation.

Coucou is even more casual—think of it like saying "hey there!" to someone you know well. It comes from baby talk, so yeah, save this one for close friends and family.

That's really it for the essentials. Sure, there are other useful French greetings, but these four will cover 95% of your real-world situations.

Tu vs. Vous: The Form of Address That'll Make or Break You

English makes life easy with "you." French? Not so much. This is one of the trickiest parts of mastering French for English speakers.

Tu is informal and singular—it's a pronoun reserved for people you know well. Use it with friends, family, kids, and people around your age in informal situations.

Vous has two jobs: it's the formal singular pronoun for one person, OR the regular plural "you" for multiple people (any formality level). This dual function confuses a lot of learners.

Here's the critical rule: if you're talking to more than one person, always use vous. Doesn't matter if they're your best friends. Multiple people = vous.

For a single person, here's the breakdown based on formality:

Use vous with:

Use tu with:

The French even have verbs for this: "se tutoyer" means to address someone with tu, "se vouvoyer" means to use vous. Sometimes people will ask "On peut se tutoyer?" (Can we use tu with each other?) as a way to signal they want a more casual relationship with the person you're speaking to.

When in doubt? Vous. Always. The French forgive being too polite. They don't forgive being too familiar. Your relationship with the person should guide which pronoun you choose—formal greetings require vous, while informal greetings can use tu.

And here's something nobody tells you—once you start using tu with someone, you can't really go back to vous. The relationship only moves one direction: from formal to informal. So don't jump into tu territory too quickly in a formal situation.

Greetings and Good-Byes: What Comes After Hello

Okay, you've mastered the basic French salutation. Now what?

Ça va? (often written as "ca va" without the cedilla) is the most common way to continue a conversation. It means "how's it going?" or "how are you?" and it's beautifully versatile—it works as both a question AND an answer. Someone asks you "Ça va?" You can literally just respond "Ça va" (I'm good). The pronunciation is "sah-VAH."

For formal settings with vous, use Comment allez-vous? For informal situations with tu, it's Comment vas-tu? There's also Comment ça va? which sits somewhere in the middle and is used in both formal and informal contexts depending on your tone.

Standard responses to greet someone asking how you are:

Don't overthink it. Most of the time, people are just being polite. A simple "Ça va" and moving on is common practice.

Saying Goodbye in French Without Being Awkward

Au revoir is your safe goodbye for any situation, any time of day. It literally means "until we see each other again" (revoir = to see again) and nobody will judge you for using it. This is one of the most common French greetings for farewells, used in formal and informal contexts alike.

Salut pulls double duty as both hi and bye with friends. Less formal than au revoir, perfect for an informal situation.

À bientôt means "see you soon" and is another common greeting when leaving. Use it when you know you'll see the person again relatively soon.

If it's daytime and you're leaving, say bonne journée (have a good day). The word "bonne" means "good" and shifts from "bon" because "journée" is feminine in French. Evening? Bonne soirée (have a good evening). Going to bed? Bonne nuit (good night)—but only if someone is actually going to sleep. Don't use it as a general evening goodbye.

Notice the difference: bonjour and bonsoir are one word when greeting. Bonne journée and bonne soirée are two words when saying goodbye. French is weirdly specific about this.

La Bise: The French Cheek Kiss Thing

Right, so about the cheek kisses everyone talks about when visiting France...

La bise is real, it's common, and yes, you'll probably need to do it. Here's what you need to know to greet people in French-speaking countries:

The technique: You don't actually kiss the person's cheek. You touch cheeks lightly and make a kissing sound in the air. That's it. The exception is kids—they might give you a real kiss on the cheek, and you can return it.

The number of kisses? In Paris and most of northern France, it's two kisses. In southern France, three. Some parts of the east do four. Brittany does one. Depending on the region, la bise varies significantly. Even French speakers get confused about this when they travel within France, so don't stress too much. When in doubt, follow the other person's lead.

When to do it: With close friends and family, obviously. At social gatherings when one person is female. When someone introduces you to their friends. NOT in formal settings like a business setting. NOT when you first meet your boss.

Gender stuff: Women always do la bise with each other and with men. Men typically shake hands with each other unless they're very close friends or family. You'll see men shake hands with everyone at a party rather than doing la bise. This is changing with younger generations—guys are increasingly doing la bise with each other—but the handshake is still safer in most situations.

Professional settings: Traditional French companies might do la bise among colleagues every morning. Modern international companies? Usually not. In a formal setting, stick to a handshake until you gauge French culture at that specific workplace.

If you really don't want to do la bise, offer your hand for a handshake before the other person leans in. It's a clear signal and totally acceptable.

COVID did interrupt la bise for a while, and Gen Z (who socialized during lockdowns) does it less. But it's definitely back and going strong in France and other French-speaking countries.

French Culture and the Weight of Greetings

Here's something that'll save you from looking like an ass: in French culture, you ALWAYS greet someone before making a request or starting a conversation. This is customary and non-negotiable if you want to make a good first impression.

Walking into a shop? Say bonjour to the person behind the counter—it's saying hello and showing basic politeness. Asking someone a question? Start with bonjour. Sitting down at a restaurant? Bonjour to the server. Not doing this is considered rude—like, people will give you dirty looks.

This extends to elevators (greet people when entering), professional meetings (shake hands with everyone and greet them individually), and basically any interaction where you're acknowledging someone's attention.

The French see skipping greetings as disrespectful. They're not being uptight—they just have different social norms around politeness and formality. When you're in their country speaking the French language, play by their rules.

Oh, and if you're arriving at a party where everyone knows each other, get there early. Otherwise, you'll spend 25 minutes just doing la bise with everyone. Leaving takes forever too. You have to say goodbye to each person individually. It's a whole thing.

For those just starting out, check out our guide on why you should learn French to understand what makes this language worth the effort. And if you want to dive deeper into French vocabulary beyond greetings, we've covered everything from how to say "hello" properly to essential French phrases for every situation.

Learning French Greetings the Right Way

Look, you can memorize all these rules, but here's the truth—you won't really understand common French greetings until you see them in action. A lot.

Textbooks teach you the words. But they don't show you the guy at the café who says "salut" to the barista he sees every morning, or the businesswoman who switches from vous to tu with a colleague after working together for three months, or how people actually navigate the awkward head-tilt when doing la bise.

This is where learning from real French content makes a massive difference. When you're watching French shows, YouTube videos, or movies, you're seeing actual French people greet each other in actual situations. You pick up on the timing, the tone, the context that makes someone choose salut over bonjour or when someone finally offers the tu switchover.

We built Migaku specifically for this kind of learning—building your fluency through real content, not textbook drills. The browser extension works with Netflix, YouTube, or any French website you're reading. When you're watching French content and someone uses a greeting you don't recognize, you can instantly look up the word or phrase and add it to your flashcard deck. Then you review it later with spaced repetition so it actually sticks.

The mobile app lets you keep learning on the go—reviewing those greeting variations you picked up from that French YouTuber you like, or from the conversation in that show you're binge-watching. Everything syncs automatically, so the greetings in French you learned from watching content turn into active vocabulary you can actually use.

The difference between reading "bonjour is used until 5-6 PM" in a textbook and seeing French speakers actually switch to bonsoir as evening hits? It's everything. You start to internalize when things feel right versus just memorizing rules.

Try it free for 10 days and see what I mean. No credit card needed.