Greetings and basic conversation

Start with bonjour

Bonjour is a useful daytime greeting, including when you enter a shop or approach someone for help. Bonsoir is an evening greeting. Salut is informal: use it with friends or people you already address casually.

Bonne journée wishes someone a good day as you leave. Bonne nuit wishes someone a good night, usually before sleep; it is not the usual greeting on arrival in the evening.

Exchange a short question and answer

Comment ça va ? asks how things are going. Ça va bien, merci is a natural reply. A simple Ça va is also common. Return the question with Et toi ? when addressing one person informally.

French uses accents and the letter ç. In ça, the cedilla keeps the c sound soft. Learn the written phrase with the sound instead of treating its marks as decoration.

Close the exchange

Au revoir is a general goodbye. À bientôt means see you soon, while à demain means see you tomorrow. Salut can also be an informal goodbye.

Listen to the whole exchange and then speak both parts. Change the answer to Ça va, merci and choose a different farewell. A short phrase you can retrieve is more useful than a long list you only recognize.

Lesson vocabulary

Read each word aloud, then test your recall of its meaning.

Practice questions

Answer the questions and read the explanations. You can repeat the exercises.

I can open and close a short conversation. I can ask and answer how someone is.