French Greetings & Goodbyes

You walk into a boulangerie in Lyon. The woman behind the counter glances up. You say nothing, or you say the wrong thing, and the whole exchange goes slightly cold before it starts. Say bonjour and make eye contact, though, and something small but real shifts. That is what this page is about — not just the words, but the moment they belong to.

French greetings carry more social weight than most learners expect. Whether to use tu or vous, when salut is friendly and when it is too casual, why bonne journée at the end of a transaction is not optional politeness but a small expected ritual — these are the things that trip people up after they already know the vocabulary. The phrases here cover first hellos, casual check-ins, and every shade of goodbye from a quick à tout à l'heure to a formal au revoir.

Each entry includes pronunciation guidance, a note on register (formal, informal, or regional), and at least one example of the context where it actually gets used. The page is organized by situation: arrivals and greetings first, then parting phrases, then the time-of-day expressions that French speakers use as a kind of social punctuation.

Every translation and audio clip on this page has been reviewed by a native speaker. If something sounds off to you, the feedback link is at the bottom of each card.