Sing along: French greetings

A song about greetings in French

It’s important to know how to greet people and respond in French.

You can practise greetings in French with this fun song.

'Hello' and 'goodbye' in French

There are different ways of greeting each other in French.To say 'hello' to someone, you can say bonjour.If you want to say 'hello' to a friend or family member, you can say salut.

If you want to say 'goodbye' to someone, you say au revoir or à bientôt – 'see you soon'.

The greeting you use can change depending on who you are talking to and what time of day it is.

'How are you?' in French

If you want to ask someone how they are feeling, you can say Ça va ? It’s like saying ‘How is it going?'.

So if someone asks you how you are, you could reply Ça va, merci – 'Good, thank you'.

Did you also spot the space before the question mark? In French, punctuation marks such as question marks, exclamation marks, colons, and semi-colons have a space before them.

Here are some different ways of saying how you are in French:

'Please' and 'thank you' in French

To say 'thank you' in French, you say merci.

To say 'please' in French, there are two different phrases to use. If you’re saying 'please' to a friend or family member, you use the informal s'il te plaît.

If you want to say 'please' to more than one person or to one person in a formal situation, such as when speaking to a shop assistant, you say s’il vous plaît.