French guides · Everyday phrases
How are you? in French: ça va does almost all of it.
How are you? in French is ça va ? (sah VAH) — two small words that cover almost every casual moment of the day. The formal version is comment allez-vous ? (koh-mahn tah-lay VOO), for strangers, officials and anyone you address as vous. But asking is only half the exchange: someone is about to ask you, and the answers matter just as much. Here is every natural way to ask, every natural way to reply, and the one habit that keeps a French conversation moving.
Every way to ask
The top of this list is what you will hear in real life; the bottom is what you will hear between friends. Anything marked vous is the polite form — more on choosing between tu and vous below.
| French | Say it | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| ça va ? | sah VAH | how are you? — casual and universal, the one to learn first |
| comment ça va ? | koh-mahn sah VAH | the same question, one notch more complete |
| comment allez-vous ? | koh-mahn tah-lay VOO | the formal one — strangers, officials, work |
| comment vas-tu ? | koh-mahn vah-TU | friendly, but a little bookish out loud |
| tu vas bien ? | tu vah BYAN | “are you doing OK?” — a warm check-in with a friend |
| vous allez bien ? | voo zah-lay BYAN | the same warmth, in the polite form |
| quoi de neuf ? | kwah duh NUHF | “what’s new?” — friends you haven’t seen in a while |
| ça roule ? | sah ROOL | “all good?” — very casual slang, friends only |
Every way to answer
French answers to this question are short. Nobody expects a report on your week — a couple of words and a question back is the whole ritual.
| French | Say it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| ça va | sah VAH | fine — the same two words that asked the question |
| ça va bien, merci | sah vah BYAN mehr-SEE | I’m well, thank you — polite and complete |
| très bien, et vous ? | treh BYAN ay VOO | very well, and you? — formal |
| très bien, et toi ? | treh BYAN ay TWAH | very well, and you? — to a friend |
| pas mal | pah MAHL | not bad |
| comme ci, comme ça | kum see kum SAH | so-so — famous abroad, less used in France |
| bof | bohf | meh — a shrug in one syllable |
| ça peut aller | sah puh tah-LAY | could be worse — honest without being gloomy |
One word of warning about comme ci, comme ça. Every learner knows it and it is perfectly correct — but it is far more common in French classrooms than on French pavements. If you want to sound like the people around you, bof, pas mal and ça peut aller are what they actually reach for.
The quiet magic of ça va
Notice what happened in those two tables: ça va appears in both. The same two words are the question and the answer, and the only thing that changes is the tune of your voice — up at the end to ask, flat to reply. A complete, entirely natural French exchange can be four words long:
— Ça va ?
— Ça va !
That is not a shortcut for beginners; it is what neighbours say to each other every morning. Literally, ça va means something like “it goes” — ça is “it” and va comes from aller, “to go”. French isn’t asking how you are, it is asking whether things are moving along. Which is why the honest middle answers — ça peut aller, “it can go” — sound so natural.
Tu or vous?
Every version of this question comes in two flavours, and picking the wrong one is the mistake learners worry about most. The rule is simpler than it looks. Use vous with strangers, with anyone noticeably older than you, in any shop, office or professional setting, and with more than one person at once. Use tu with friends, family, classmates, children and animals.
If you genuinely can’t decide, choose vous. Being slightly too polite in French is invisible; being too familiar is not. And if the other person wants to drop the formality, they will tell you — on peut se tutoyer (“we can use tu”) is the standard invitation, and you can simply say oui, avec plaisir.
Always send it back
The single habit that will make your French sound less like a phrasebook is also the easiest one on this page: never let the question stop with you.
Whatever you answer, add et toi ? (ay TWAH) to a friend or et vous ? (ay VOO) to anyone else. It means simply “and you?”, it takes half a second, and French speakers expect it — an answer without it can land as a full stop rather than a conversation. Ça va bien, merci, et vous ? is a complete, polite, native-sounding turn, and you already know all of it.
Hear it, then say it
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Quick answers
Ça va, answered.
The questions learners actually ask about asking how someone is.