Dialogue: Présentations (A1)

The first time you meet someone in French, a handful of formulas do most of the work: a name, a polite acknowledgement, a question about origin, an answer with a nationality adjective. The grammar behind these formulas is small but unforgiving — the agreement of enchanté changes by speaker, je m'appelle hides a pronominal verb most A1 textbooks have not yet introduced, and the echo Et vous ? depends on having registered which form of address your interlocutor used.

This page walks through a five-line introduction between two strangers, then unpacks each move so you can produce them yourself.

The dialogue

Pierre : Bonjour, je m'appelle Pierre.

Marie : Enchantée. Moi, c'est Marie.

Pierre : Vous êtes française ?

Marie : Oui, je suis de Lyon. Et vous ?

Pierre : Je suis canadien.

Five short turns. Each one carries grammar that will reappear hundreds of times in A1 conversation.

Line by line

Bonjour, je m'appelle Pierre.

Je m'appelle literally means "I call myself" — the verb s'appeler is pronominal (also called reflexive), meaning the subject and object refer to the same person. Strict word-for-word, it would be "I myself-call Pierre".

The pronominal verb infinitive is s'appeler (the se part is the reflexive pronoun, which changes with the subject):

Note the doubled l in appelle and appellent: a spelling quirk to keep the e before -lle sounding open ("ah-pell" not "ah-puh-lay"). The doubling appears in any form whose ending starts with a silent e.

For introductions, the four forms you actually use most are je m'appelle, tu t'appelles (asking a friend), vous vous appelez (asking a stranger), and il/elle s'appelle (talking about a third person).

Enchantée. Moi, c'est Marie.

Two distinct moves in one short turn.

Enchanté(e) is the standard polite acknowledgement when introduced. It comes from the past participle of enchanter ("to enchant, to delight"), so it literally means "delighted [to meet you]". The full long form is Enchanté(e) de faire votre connaissance, but most speakers just say Enchanté(e).

The agreement is the trap: the speaker agrees the adjective with their own gender, not with the person they are addressing. Marie is a woman, so she says enchantée with a silent -e added in writing (audible only as a slightly different vowel quality if at all). Pierre, replying later, would say enchanté with no extra -e. This contradicts a learner's first instinct to agree with the addressee.

In the dialogue above, enchantée has the -e because Marie, the speaker, is feminine.

Here enchanté has no -e because Pierre, the speaker, is masculine.

Moi, c'est Marie is a presentation formula. Moi is a disjunctive (tonic) pronoun — the form used when a pronoun stands alone or is emphasized, instead of the conjugated subject form je. The pattern Moi, c'est X is common when introducing yourself in response to someone else, especially in casual contexts:

The construction is lighter and slightly more informal than Je m'appelle Marie. They are both correct; moi, c'est X feels more conversational and is very common between people of similar age in casual settings.

Vous êtes française ?

A yes/no question by intonation alone — no inversion, no est-ce que. At A1, intonation questions are by far the most natural choice. Vous êtes française ? with a rising tone at the end is identical in word order to a statement; only the intonation makes it a question.

The adjective française ends in -e because Pierre is asking Marie, who is a woman. Pierre is reading her gender from her name and appearance and choosing the feminine form. Had Marie been Marc (a man), Pierre would have asked Vous êtes français ? (no -e).

The masculine/feminine pair for nationality adjectives is one of the most regular spelling patterns in French:

Most pairs add -e for the feminine. A subset doubles the consonant: canadien → canadienne, italien → italienne, coréen → coréenne. Some are invariable: belge, russe, suisse — these end in -e already.

Lower case, no article. Unlike English, French nationality adjectives used as adjectives are written in lower case (je suis français) and used without an article. When the same word is used as a noun referring to a person, it is capitalized: un Français, une Française. The grammar of the dialogue uses the adjective form.

Oui, je suis de Lyon. Et vous ?

Je suis de [city] is the standard phrase for stating where you are from. The preposition de with a city name means "from [city]" — your origin, not your current residence. De Lyon, de Paris, de Tokyo. Before a city beginning with a vowel, de contracts to d': d'Avignon, d'Athènes, d'Oslo.

For countries, the preposition depends on gender: de France (feminine countries), du Japon (masculine), des États-Unis (plural). Cities take only de / d' — no article involved.

Et vous ? is an echo question — a one-word return of the question to the other speaker. Once Marie has answered, she lobs the question back. The pattern is very productive in French:

The form is Et toi ? with a friend, Et vous ? with a stranger. Notice that the echo uses the same disjunctive pronouns as Moi, c'est X — moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles.

Je suis canadien.

Pierre answers in the masculine form because he is a man. Canadien with no -e — feminine would be canadienne (doubled n). No article: je suis canadien, not je suis un canadien. With être + nationality, French drops the indefinite article that English uses ("I'm a Canadian"). Add a qualifier and the article comes back: Je suis un Canadien né à Toronto ("I'm a Canadian born in Toronto").

The shape of an A1 introduction

The skeleton:

1. Greeting and self-naming: Bonjour, je m'appelle [name] or Salut, moi c'est [name].
2. Acknowledgement: Enchanté(e). The other speaker often gives their own name in return.
3. Question about origin or nationality: Vous êtes [nationalité] ? or D'où venez-vous ? or Vous habitez où ?
4. Answer + echo: Oui, je suis [origin]. Et vous ?
5. Symmetric answer from the first speaker.

Once you can run this skeleton both ways — initiating and responding — you have the social grammar of any first-meeting conversation in French.

Tu vs. vous in introductions

Pierre and Marie are using vous throughout. This is the safer choice when:

• Meeting any adult stranger in a professional or semi-public setting.
• Meeting someone significantly older than you.
• Being introduced in a workplace.

You shift to tu when:

• You are at a party, in a casual social context, with people roughly your age.
• A friend introduces you to their friends in an informal setting.
• The other person tutoyer-s you first, or asks On peut se tutoyer ? ("Can we use tu?").

If in doubt, start with vous. Switching to tu later is easy and friendly; switching from tu to vous would feel like withdrawing warmth.

Common mistakes

Mon nom est X is grammatically possible but feels like a translation — French speakers say je m'appelle or moi, c'est X. Reserve mon nom est for very formal contexts (administrative, written introductions) and even there it sounds stiff.

Enchanté(e) agrees with the speaker, not the listener. Remember: when you say enchantée, you are saying you are delighted — about yourself.

After être, French drops the indefinite article before nationalities (and professions). Je suis canadien, je suis professeur, je suis étudiante. With a qualifier the article comes back: Je suis un canadien curieux — but the bare form is the rule for the standard A1 introduction.

The article goes with countries (je suis du Japon) and regions, not with cities. Lyon, Paris, Marseille take de directly. Avignon, Annecy contract to d'.

Used as adjectives, nationality words are written in lower case. The capital letter is reserved for the noun (une Française).

Key takeaways