French Greetings and Survival Phrases: Say Something Today
Here is the good news nobody tells you at the start: you can hold your first French conversation before you have conjugated a single verb.
Greetings and courtesies are fixed phrases in every language. Nobody assembles how do you do from parts, and you do not need to assemble the French either. Learn the dozen expressions below as whole things to say, the way you learned thank you as a small child, and you can walk into a boulangerie, a video call or a Paris café this afternoon and take part. The grammar is what makes the rest of the language open up. It is not a toll you have to pay before you are allowed to say hello.
So today, these are just things to say.
Greetings
. Hello, or good day. This is the one to learn first, because it works everywhere: any time of day, one person or a crowd, a shopkeeper or a stranger. The French say it constantly - walking into a shop without a is genuinely rude - so if you remember nothing else off this page, remember . After dark it becomes , good evening.
. Hi - the relaxed version, for friends and people your own age. It also doubles as a casual bye on the way out, which makes it two phrases for the price of one.
. Goodbye - literally until the seeing-again, which is a warmer thing to say than the English lets on.
Getting by
Comment ? How are you? The standard opener once you have said hello. With friends it shrinks to just ? - same question, two syllables.
, . I'm fine, thank you. The standard reply, and worth banking as a pair with the question so the two arrive together. In a hurry, plain works as the answer too - French lets the same two words ask the question and answer it.
m'... My name is... Put your own name on the end and you have introduced yourself: m' . Literally it is I call myself, but today it is simply the name phrase.
Comment t'appelles ? What's your name? The natural follow-up, and with it the whole name exchange is yours: m' . , comment t'appelles ? - I'm Marie. And you, what's your name?
A quick word on that little . French has two words for you: for a friend, a child or a fellow student, and for a stranger, an official or anyone you would call sir or madam. It is why please comes in two flavours below, and why the polite version of the name question is Comment - ? When in doubt, use the forms - nobody was ever offended by too much politeness. The full story belongs to a later lesson; today, just know both exist.
Courtesies
. Thank you. One word, said just as it looks. is thank you very much when you mean it.
. You're welcome - literally of nothing, the French shrug that says it was no trouble. The natural answer to .
S' or s' . Please. The first is the polite version for strangers and shopkeepers; the second is the version for friends. Either one softens a request, and starting with the form keeps you safe everywhere.
Pardon or -. Sorry, or excuse me. Pardon covers a genuine apology and a polite excuse me, could I get past alike; - is the fuller way to catch someone's attention before a question.
. I don't understand. Quietly the most useful sentence a beginner owns, because it keeps a conversation alive when everything else has fallen apart: it asks the other person to slow down or try again, instead of leaving them guessing.
/ . Yes and no. Two of the shortest words in the language and two of the most needed.
A quiet promise for later
Look again at m' and s' . Once you have learned how French sentences are built, you will see straight through these phrases. m' is I call myself - your first reflexive verb, months before you need the term. S' is if it pleases you, a whole polite subjunctive world folded into three syllables. is until the re-seeing. Nearly everything on this page comes apart into pieces you will recognise, and when it does, you will not so much have memorised these phrases as understood them.
But that is a treat for a later week. Today they are just things to say - so go and say one.