Les salutations

Basic French salutations

Learn how to greet someone in French

Bienvenue

Let’s imagine you go to someone’s house. The host says “welcome”. In French, this can be said as “bienvenue”.

Notice, that “bien” is good and “venue” is the past participle form of “venir”. Therefore, these words mean “good come” or “welcome”.

Bonjour, Bonne nuit, Bon après-midi

These three mean good morning, good night, and good afternoon respectively.

“Bon” here means “good” and “jour” is “day”. It means “good day” or “good morning”.

”Bonne” is the feminine form of “bon” and “nuit” means “night”. It means “good night”

“après+midi” means “after noon” or “afternoon”.

These can be used to greet someone according to the timings.

Comment tu t’appelles

If you want to ask- “what’s your name?” Then you say “comment tu t’appelles”. Literally translating to “how do you call yourself”. “Comment” is an interrogative adjective meaning “how” and “tu” is a subject pronoun meaning “you”. “T’appelles” is a pronominal verb that means “call yourself”.

Je m’appelle _

To answer the question we discussed before, you say “Je m’appelle _(name)” .

For example- Comment tu appelles? (What’s your name?)

Oh! Je m’appelle Caroline. (Oh! I am Caroline)

You May also say “mon nom est_” meaning my name is_”.

Or, you can say “je suis_”. Meaning “I am _”

Points discussed in this lesson -

• Bienvenue

• Bonjour, Bon après-midi, Bonne nuit

• Comment tu t’appelles

• Je m’appelle