French guides · French words explained
Enchanté: “delighted” — the French hello for strangers.
Enchanté means “nice to meet you”, and it is doing something rather lovely: the literal sense is enchanted, delighted, even spellbound. It is short for enchanté de faire votre connaissance — “delighted to make your acquaintance”. Pronounced ahn-shahn-TAY, it is the standard thing to say on being introduced. And it changes its spelling depending on who is speaking, without changing its sound at all.
The silent extra e
Enchanté is an adjective describing you, the speaker — so it agrees with you. A man writes enchanté; a woman writes enchantée. The extra e is completely silent, so out loud there is no difference whatsoever.
| Written | Say it | Who writes it |
|---|---|---|
| enchanté | ahn-shahn-TAY | a man |
| enchantée | ahn-shahn-TAY | a woman — identical out loud |
| enchantés | ahn-shahn-TAY | a group including a man |
| enchantées | ahn-shahn-TAY | a group of women |
Four spellings, one sound. Speaking, you can stop worrying about it entirely; the choice only appears when you type it in a message or an email.
Getting the sound
There are two nasal vowels stacked at the front of this word, which is what makes it feel like a mouthful the first few times.
| Chunk | Say it | Note |
|---|---|---|
| en- | ahn | nasal — no hard n on the end |
| -chan- | shahn | French ch is always “sh”, never “ch” as in “chair” |
| -té | TAY | é is a clean “ay”; the stress lands here |
Ch in French says “sh”. That gives you chat (shah), chocolat (shoko-LAH) and chercher (shehr-SHAY). One rule, an enormous amount of vocabulary.
The longer, and the newer, versions
| French | Say it | Register |
|---|---|---|
| enchanté | ahn-shahn-TAY | standard, polite, always fine |
| enchanté de faire votre connaissance | …duh fair votr ko-neh-SAHNSS | the full formal version |
| ravi de vous rencontrer | rah-VEE duh voo rahn-kohn-TRAY | “delighted to meet you” — modern, professional |
| content de te voir | kohn-TAHN duh tuh VWAHR | “good to see you” — informal, already acquainted |
Among younger French speakers, a plain bonjour plus the person’s name often does the whole job. Enchanté is not old-fashioned, but it is noticeably polite — a small formal bow.
A whole introduction, end to end
| French | English |
|---|---|
| Bonjour, je m’appelle Claire. | Hello, my name is Claire. |
| Enchanté ! Moi, c’est Thomas. | Nice to meet you! I’m Thomas. |
| Enchantée. Vous êtes d’ici ? | Nice to meet you. Are you from here? |
| Ravi de vous rencontrer. | Delighted to meet you. |
A neat detail: when the second person replies, they often say enchanté straight back. Unlike English, where “nice to meet you too” needs the “too”, French is happy to simply repeat the word.
Hear it, then say it
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Quick answers
Enchanté, answered.
Meeting someone for the first time, in French.