Hello in French

In this video I’ll explain how to say hello in French!

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Bonjour !

In this lesson, we are going to learn how to greet people, which is “SALUER” in French.

“Bonjour” means hello in French. It also means good morning or good afternoon.

“Bon” means good and “jour” means day, so it literally means “good day”.

Be careful with the pronunciation of the nasal vowel “on” in “bonjour” (you don’t have to pronounce the N like in an English word).

Be careful with the “r “ sound too, which is also very different from English, : it’s like a gargling type sound in the throat.

A typical mistake is to write Bonjour in 2 words! So be careful, you have to write it in just one word.

~~Bon jour~~ —> NO Bonjour—> YES!

Other words to say hello in French:

There are other words to say hello in French:

“Salut” and “bonsoir”.

“Salut” means Hello or Hi, it is an informal way to say hello in French.

Be careful with the pronunciation: you don’t have to pronounce the final “t”. And be careful with the pronunciation of the letter “u” too.

Bonsoir means good evening. Once again, be careful with the pronunciation of the nasal vowel “on”.

“Bonjour” and “salut” can be used at any time of the day but “bonsoir” is used only in the afternoon, from 5pm onwards, or in the evening.

The expressions bon matin (matin=morning) or bon après-midi (après-midi = afternoon) don’t exist as a greeting, so never use them to greet someone.

Now that you know how to greet people, we can add some more words:

Let’s see an example:

– Bonjour, ça va ? (hello, how are you?)

– Oui, ça va, et toi ? (I’m good, and you?)

– Très bien, merci ! (Very well, thank you.)

Let’s see another example:

-Salut, tu vas bien ? (Hi, how are you doing?)

-Très bien, et toi ? (I’m doing very well, and you?)

-Ça va. (I’m doing well.)

Let’s see one last example:

– Bonsoir vous allez bien Monsieur ? (Good evening Sir, how are you?)
– Très bien merci et vous ? (Very well thank you, and you ?)

– Très bien. (Very well)

Finally, we are going to do a little exercise:

Which of the following sentences are incorrect?

Correction:

The second, the third and the sixth are incorrect.

In the second and in the third sentences, BONSOIR and BONJOUR are written in two words.

In the sixth sentence, the problem is that VOUS is formal but SALUT is informal.

We have completed this lesson (How to say Hello in French).

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Hello in French