French guides · Everyday phrases
Hello in French: bonjour opens every door.
Hello in French is bonjour (bohn-ZHOOR) — it means both “hello” and “good day”, and you can say it to absolutely anyone. The casual version is salut (sah-LU), which you keep for friends. Around those two sits a small family of greetings — one for the evening, one for the phone, one for meeting someone new, one you only say the second time you see the same person that day. Here they all are, with pronunciation you can read out loud and the right reply to each.
Every French greeting, at a glance
| French | Say it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| bonjour | bohn-ZHOOR | hello / good day — works with anyone, all day |
| bonsoir | bohn-SWAHR | good evening — from roughly 6 p.m. |
| salut | sah-LU | hi — friends only; also means bye |
| coucou | koo-KOO | hi there — playful, for close friends and family |
| allô | ah-LOH | hello — on the phone only |
| enchanté / enchantée | ahn-shahn-TAY | nice to meet you — on being introduced |
| bonjour Madame / Monsieur | bohn-zhoor mah-DAHM / muh-SYUH | hello Madam / Sir — the polite full form |
| rebonjour | ruh-bohn-ZHOOR | hello again — for the second time today |
| ça va ? | sah VAH | how’s it going? — a greeting in its own right |
| bienvenue | byan-vuh-NU | welcome — what a host says at the door |
| bonne journée | bun zhoor-NAY | have a good day — a goodbye, not a hello |
| bonne soirée | bun swah-RAY | have a good evening — also a goodbye |
The bonjour rule visitors get wrong
In France, bonjour is not a nicety you can skip on your way to the real sentence. It is the ticket you hand over before anything else happens. Bakery, pharmacy, corner shop, doctor’s waiting room, the lift in a block of flats — bonjour comes first, before the question, before the order, before “do you speak English?”. Ask for your croissant without it and you haven’t been brisk, you’ve been rude, and the tone of the answer will tell you so.
The polite full form costs you one extra word: bonjour Madame or bonjour Monsieur. Use it with anyone serving you, anyone older, anyone you haven’t met. Madame is the default for any adult woman — mademoiselle has quietly fallen out of everyday use, so leave it alone.
The other half of the rule surprises people: bonjour is a once-a-day thing, per person. You greet a colleague at nine; you don’t greet them again at eleven. If you catch yourself doing it, the fix is rebonjour — literally “re-hello” — usually said with a smile, because you both know what just happened. In messages and online, people shorten it to re. Or say nothing at all: a nod and a smile is the normal French answer to passing the same person twice.
Bonjour or bonsoir? Salut or bonjour?
Bonjour covers the whole working day. Bonsoir takes over once the evening starts, typically after 6 p.m. — but there is no clock rule that everyone obeys, and nobody is timing you. If the lights are on and the day feels finished, bonsoir. If you’re unsure, let the other person speak first and use the same word back; French people do exactly that. Bonsoir also works on the way out, so it greets and it farewells.
One that only ever goes at the end: bonne nuit (bun NWEE), “good night”. That is for bed, not for arriving — never use it to greet someone.
Salut is the friends version, and it is beautifully lazy: one word for hello and goodbye. The catch is who you can use it on. Salut belongs to people you call tu — friends, family, classmates, colleagues you know well. Say it to a shopkeeper and it lands like calling a stranger “mate”: not offensive, just wrong-footed. Coucou goes one step further into affection — close friends, family, small children, and half the text messages in France.
The safe habit while you’re learning: bonjour is never wrong. Salut can be.
Allô (ah-LOH) is what you say when you pick up, and almost nothing else. It is not a French “hello” for the street, a shop, or walking into a room — said to someone in front of you it sounds like you’re checking whether they can hear you. In person, always bonjour.
What to say back
| They say | You say | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| bonjour | bonjour | mirror it; add Madame or Monsieur if they did |
| bonsoir | bonsoir | the same move, after dark |
| salut | salut | only if you’d call them tu |
| coucou | coucou | or salut — friends and family only |
| ça va ? | ça va, et toi ? | answer first, then ask back (ay TWAH) |
| enchanté(e) | enchanté(e) | straight back — both spellings sound identical |
| bienvenue | merci | the guest’s line (mehr-SEE) |
| bonne journée | merci, vous aussi ! | mehr-see voo-zoh-SEE; toi aussi with friends |
| bonne soirée | merci, vous aussi ! | identical reply, later in the day |
| allô ? | allô, bonjour… | then say who is calling |
If you take one thing from that table, take this: French greetings are mostly a mirror. Whatever word lands on you, send the same word back, and if they added Madame or Monsieur, you add it too.
The exception is ça va ?, which is a question wearing a greeting’s clothes. It wants a small answer before you hand it back: ça va, et toi ? with a friend, or ça va, merci, et vous ? (ay VOO) with anyone else. Nobody expects a real health update — ça va on its own is a complete, perfectly normal reply.
And keep bienvenue in its own box: it means “welcome” at the door. In France it is not a way of saying “you’re welcome” after merci — that use belongs to Quebec. Here, the reply to merci is de rien.
Hear it, then say it
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Quick answers
Bonjour, answered.
The questions learners actually ask about French greetings.