French guides · French words explained
Bonjour: the word that opens every door in France.
Bonjour means “good day” — bon (good) plus jour (day) — and it is the standard French hello. It is pronounced bohn-ZHOOR, and it is safe with absolutely everyone: your boss, a stranger, a five-year-old. But in France it is more than a greeting. Walking into a small shop without saying it is the single fastest way to be treated coldly, and saying it twice to the same person marks you out just as quickly.
What it means, literally
Bonjour is two words fused into one: bon (“good”) and jour (“day”). So the literal translation is “good day” — but it does the job English gives to “hello”, “good morning” and “hi” all at once.
| French | Say it | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| bonjour | bohn-ZHOOR | hello / good morning / good day — until early evening |
| bonsoir | bohn-SWAHR | good evening — from roughly 6pm |
| salut | sah-LEW | hi — friends and family only; also means “bye” |
| coucou | koo-KOO | hiya — affectionate, for people you know well |
| rebonjour | ruh-bohn-ZHOOR | “hello again” — for the second meeting the same day |
The on in bonjour is nasal — the air goes through your nose and there is no hard n at the end. And the j is soft, like the middle of “measure”, never the hard j of “jam”. So: bohn-ZHOOR, not “bon-JOOR”.
The rule nobody tells you: say it once
In France, bonjour is a one-per-person-per-day word. Greet the same colleague with a second bonjour an hour later and you will often get a slightly amused “on s’est déjà vu” — we’ve already seen each other.
The fix is rebonjour, or simply re among friends and colleagues. It sounds like a joke word. It is not — it is genuinely what people say.
Where it is close to obligatory
This is the part that catches visitors out. In France, entering a small, enclosed space means greeting the people already in it. Not doing so reads as rudeness, not shyness.
- A bakery, pharmacy, small shop or market stall — say it as you cross the threshold, before you ask for anything.
- A doctor’s or dentist’s waiting room — a general bonjour to the room.
- A lift or a small hotel breakfast room.
- The start of any phone call or email to someone you do not know.
Bonjour on the way in, s’il vous plaît with the request, merci when you are handed it, au revoir on the way out. Those four carry an astonishing amount of goodwill, even if the rest of your French collapses.
Bonjour or bonne journée?
These look alike and mean opposite things in practice. Bonjour is what you say arriving. Bonne journée (“have a good day”) is what you say leaving.
| French | Say it | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| bonjour | bohn-ZHOOR | you arrive, morning to early evening |
| bonne journée | bun zhoor-NAY | you leave, and their day continues |
| bonsoir | bohn-SWAHR | you arrive, evening |
| bonne soirée | bun swah-RAY | you leave, evening |
| bonne nuit | bun NWEE | you (or they) are going to bed — not a goodbye |
English uses “goodnight” to leave a party. French does not. Bonne nuit is strictly for actual sleep. Leaving somewhere in the evening, you want bonne soirée.
When it is not the French greeting
If you searched for bonjour and landed on something technical, that is a different thing entirely: Bonjour is also the name of Apple’s zero-configuration networking service, the one that finds printers and speakers on a local network. It is installed alongside iTunes on Windows. Same spelling, no French required.
The greeting is also a common name for cafés, hotels and shops worldwide, and the title of Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novel Bonjour tristesse — “hello, sadness”.
Hear it, then say it
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Quick answers
Bonjour, answered.
The questions people actually ask after hearing the word.