Salutations et Au Revoir

In French, greetings and farewells are not optional flourishes — they are the foundation of every interaction. Walking into a small shop, a doctor's waiting room, or even a shared elevator without saying bonjour is genuinely impolite in a way it isn't quite in English. And leaving without au revoir leaves a small social residue that French speakers notice. This page maps the everyday vocabulary of arrival and departure: which form to use at which time of day, the formal-informal split, the time-of-day farewells (bonne journée, bonne soirée), and the cultural rules — including la bise — that govern which words you actually say.

Bonjour — the universal day greeting

The default French greeting, usable from morning through late afternoon with anyone you meet, is bonjour (literally "good day"). It works in every register: with strangers, with colleagues, with friends, in shops, on the phone (in some contexts), in formal letters.

The form bonjour madame / bonjour monsieur — adding the title — is the polished, careful version, used with people you don't know in service contexts (shops, official buildings, formal greetings). It is not strictly required, but it lifts the register and signals attentive manners.

A culturally important point that newcomers learn quickly: in France, you say bonjour when you enter any small shop, café, bakery, or office — not just when addressing the owner directly. Walking in silently and going straight to the counter is read as cold or hostile. Likewise, in a small apartment building you greet neighbours you cross paths with. Skipping bonjour is genuinely noticeable, and across France you'll occasionally hear shopkeepers respond pointedly with their own loud Bonjour ! to a customer who forgot.

You only say bonjour once per encounter. If you greet a colleague at 9 a.m. and run into them again at 11, a second bonjour would be slightly odd — French speakers may use re-bonjour (informal) or simply nod.

Bonsoir — the evening shift

From late afternoon onward — roughly from five or six o'clock — French shifts from bonjour to bonsoir (good evening). The crossover point varies by region, season, and speaker: some shift around four, some wait until full dusk.

A frequent confusion for English speakers: bonsoir is for arriving in the evening, not for leaving at night. To say goodbye at night you use bonne soirée (have a good evening) or au revoir. Bonsoir itself is purely a greeting.

Salut — the informal universal

For friends, family, classmates, and anyone you address as tu, the standard greeting is salut. It works as both a hello and a goodbye, regardless of time of day.

Salut is informal (informal). It would sound out of place in a formal meeting, in a shop with someone you don't know, or with elders you haven't been introduced to. With strangers and in service contexts, stick with bonjour or bonsoir. Using salut with a stranger you've just been introduced to in a professional context can come across as presumptuous — you don't yet have the right to that intimacy.

Coucou — the warmest informal

A more affectionate variant, coucou (informal, family/close friends), is even more casual than salut. It has a warm, slightly playful feel and lives mostly in family contexts, between close friends, partners, and with children.

You would not greet your boss with coucou unless you are on genuinely close personal terms. Used with the wrong person, coucou sounds either childish or overfamiliar.

Allô — only for the phone

The greeting allô exists in French solely as a telephone opener. It is not a face-to-face greeting and never replaces bonjour.

Notice the typical sequence on the phone: allô (acknowledging the connection), then bonjour, then your purpose. Allô by itself is enough between friends; in formal calls, follow it with bonjour.

Asking how someone is

After the greeting, French expects a follow-up — typically a comment ça va ? or its formal variant. Skipping it once you've engaged with someone feels brusque.

The reciprocal pattern is fixed: a question about wellbeing must be returned. Et toi ? / Et vous ? closes the loop.

The form et vous-même ? (and yourself?) is a slightly more polished formal echo than the bare et vous ? and is common in business and service contexts.

A cultural note: unlike American English, where how are you? is often a near-meaningless greeting expecting good, you? in return, the French comment ça va ? sits somewhere in the middle. A short ça va, merci is fine with strangers, but with friends and family it often invites a real, if brief, answer — about the day, the kids, the work week.

Au revoir — the universal goodbye

The neutral, universal farewell is au revoir — literally "until [we] see each other again." It works in every register from a formal letter sign-off to leaving a friend's house.

In service contexts — shops, restaurants, offices — au revoir on the way out mirrors the bonjour on the way in. Walking out silently is, again, slightly cold.

À bientôt, à plus tard, à demain — time-specific farewells

French has a productive à + time pattern for farewells, each implying a specific gap before the next encounter.

The hierarchy of intimacy is roughly:

• à tout de suite — within minutes (you've stepped out briefly)
• à tout à l'heure — within the same day
• à plus tard / à plus — informal, vague "later"
• à bientôt — soon but not specified
• à demain, à lundi, à la semaine prochaine — pinned to a date

The shortened à plus (pronounced /a plys/, with the s sounded) is (informal) and very common between friends, especially in texts and online.

Bonne journée, bonne soirée — the wishing farewells

Alongside au revoir, French speakers routinely add a bonne + time-period wish on departure. These are often part of the farewell, not an extra; in shops, the cashier's bonne journée ! is essentially the goodbye itself.

Bonne nuit — only when going to bed

Bonne nuit — "good night" — has a much narrower use than its English equivalent. It is said only when one or both speakers are going to sleep, never as a general evening farewell.

If you are leaving a friend's house at midnight after a dinner party, you do not say bonne nuit — you say bonne soirée if their evening continues, or simply au revoir / à bientôt. Bonne nuit implies the night of sleep itself.

La bise — kissing on the cheeks

For close acquaintances, friends, and family — and often for first meetings in informal social contexts — French speakers exchange la bise: light cheek-touches, lip-sounds in the air, alternating sides. The number of kisses is genuinely regional:

• 2 — Paris and most of France (default)
• 1 — parts of Brittany, Finistère
• 3 — parts of Provence, Languedoc, Belgium
• 4 — Loire Valley, parts of Champagne and Normandy

The starting cheek also varies (left in most of France, right in some southern regions). When in doubt, follow the lead of the person initiating.

La bise is generally between women and women, women and men, and (less commonly) close male friends or family. Between male professional acquaintances, a handshake (serrer la main) is more usual. Workplace conventions have shifted significantly since 2020 — many offices have informally retired la bise, and many people now ask: On se fait la bise ou pas ?

For first-time professional meetings and formal contexts, a handshake is the safer default. La bise is for the social circle.

Common Mistakes

The shop bonjour is non-negotiable. English speakers transferring "I'd like..." directly into French without the opening greeting consistently come across as cold.

Bonne nuit implies bed. Use bonne soirée or au revoir when leaving an evening event.

Until at least five or six in the afternoon, bonjour is correct. Switching to bonsoir too early sounds slightly odd.

Salut belongs to the tu sphere. With vous people you don't have personal closeness with, use bonjour or bonsoir.

Allô is exclusively a telephone-opener. Using it face-to-face sounds bizarre.

When someone asks comment ça va ?, French expects you to answer the question and return it. Just saying bonjour leaves the exchange unfinished.

Key takeaways

• Bonjour until late afternoon, bonsoir from around five or six onward — universal, neutral, polite.
• Salut and coucou are tu-only and warmer; never use them with strangers in service contexts.
• Allô is for the phone; bonne nuit is for going to bed.
• The greeting on entering and the goodbye on leaving are part of the cultural infrastructure of French interactions, not optional politeness.
• The bonjour / bonne journée (masculine greet / feminine wish) and bonsoir / bonne soirée pairings are stable: arrive with bon-, leave with bonne -ée.
• La bise is for the social circle and varies regionally; when in doubt, let the other person lead, or default to a handshake in professional contexts.