Au revoir !

A common pronunciation is oh ruh-vwar.

More precisely in standard French, it is often written phonetically as /o ʁə.vwaʁ/.

A few helpful points:

• Au sounds like oh
• The r in French is not the English r; it is made farther back in the throat
• revoir is usually two syllables: ruh-vwar
• In everyday speech, the middle e can become very weak, so you may hear something closer to oh r-vwar

Au is a contraction of à + le.

So historically:

• à = to
• le = the
• au = to the

In Au revoir, the literal idea is something like until the seeing again or to seeing again, even though you should learn and use the whole expression as a set phrase.

Yes. Revoir is the infinitive form of a verb meaning to see again.

It is built from:

• voir = to see
• re- = again

So revoir literally means to see again.

In Au revoir, you do not need to analyze it every time you use it; native speakers treat Au revoir as a normal fixed goodbye expression.

Au revoir is neutral and very common. It works in both formal and informal situations.

You can use it with:

• strangers
• coworkers
• teachers
• shop staff
• friends

It is safer and more universal than very casual alternatives like Salut.

Yes, you can absolutely use it with friends.

It is not too formal. However, among close friends, people may also use more casual goodbyes such as:

• Salut
• À plus
• À bientôt
• Bye

So Au revoir is correct with friends, but it may sound a little more standard or neutral than the most casual options.

No. The exclamation mark is optional.

You can write:

• Au revoir.
• Au revoir !

The version with ! feels a bit warmer, more lively, or more expressive. In normal writing, both are fine depending on tone.

Yes. Au revoir is not tied to a specific time of day.

You can use it:

• in the morning
• in the afternoon
• in the evening

Unlike greetings such as Bonjour or Bonsoir, Au revoir works as a general goodbye.

Not really for everyday learning, because Au revoir is best learned as a fixed expression.

If you look at it literally, it does not match natural English word-for-word order. That is normal. Many common expressions do not translate neatly word by word.

So the best approach is:

• learn Au revoir as one complete phrase
• use it as a standard goodbye
• do not worry too much about translating each part when speaking

It is capitalized here only because it is at the beginning of the sentence.

Normally, in the middle of a sentence, you would write:

• Il a dit au revoir.

So the phrase itself is not normally capitalized unless sentence position requires it.

Yes, sometimes the pronunciation becomes more relaxed in fast speech.

For example, the middle sound in revoir may weaken, so it can sound a bit like:

• oh r-vwar

But in writing, you still normally write the full form Au revoir.

Learners should start with the full standard pronunciation and spelling.

No. They are not the same in usage.

• Au revoir is the normal everyday goodbye
• Adieu is much less common in everyday speech and can sound very final, dramatic, old-fashioned, or regional depending on context

So for most situations, Au revoir is the better and safer choice.

No. As in many French words, spelling and pronunciation do not match perfectly.

A few key points:

• Au is pronounced just oh
• the e in revoir is often very light
• the final r in revoir is pronounced in standard French

So you should not try to pronounce it like English spelling rules. It is better to memorize the whole sound of the phrase.