Rocket French Newsletter Series
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Bonjour and welcome to the Rocket French Newsletter Series!
In today’s newsletter you’re going to learn some more greetings that are used every day in France. Are you ready to start?
Greetings like “good morning” or “good afternoon” are incredibly important in French. As the French culture is more formal, going through the ritual of greeting another person is an important way of showing respect. French shake hands while saying “Bonjour” or “Bonsoir” depending on the time of the day. You are expected to greet every person individually, even if they’re in a group. That means that if you’re walking along the road and pass a group of five people, you’ll have to say, “Bonjour,” and shake hands five times! Once you know them, you may kiss them on the cheeks. It is usually on both cheeks but in some region it is up to four times so keep an eye of how many times people kiss on the cheeks.
Audio 1 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour, bonjour, bonjour… |
As you have learned before, there are two ways of addressing someone in French: a polite or formal way using “Vous” and a more casual way using “Tu”. The same concept applies to greetings. Listen to the link below to hear formal French greetings…
Audio 2 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Good morning! | Bonjour! | |
| Good afternoon! | Bonjour! | |
| Good evening! | Bonsoir! | |
| Good night! | Bonne nuit! |
As you could see there is no distinction in French between good morning and good afternoon, only once it’s dark you will have to greet saying good evening. Nowadays it is quite common to use English greetings, like “hi” and “bye bye”, but these are considered to be casual. Listen to the link below to hear some informal French greetings…
Audio 3 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Hello(on the telephone) | Allô | |
| Hi | Salut | |
| How are you? | ça va |
And here is a formal way of saying good-bye.
Audio 4 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Good-bye | Au revoir |
Let’s listen to some casual farewells…
Audio 5 Click Play To Hear Audio
| Bye | Au revoir | |
| See you soon | A bientôt | |
| See you later | A plus tard | |
| Have a good day (formal) | Passez une bonne journée | |
| Have a good day | Bonne journée | |
| See you then | On se voit plus tard ! | |
| Take Care (formal) | Prenez soin de vous | |
| Take Care | Prend soin de toi |
That’s it for today’s lesson. Using different greetings will make you sound more fluent, so try to remember as many as you can.
À très bientôt!
Marie-Claire
www.rocketlanguages.com/french
P.S.: Here is a little exercise for you to test your French skills.
Exercise 1: Match the French word with its English translation.
| 1. A plus tard | ( ____ ) | a. hello |
| 2. Salut | ( ____ ) | b. good night |
| 3. Au revoir | ( ____ ) | c. see you later |
| 4. Bonne nuit | ( ____ ) | d. good morning |
| 5. Bonjour | ( ____ ) | e. good-bye |
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P.S. Don't forget to check out my special bonus offer only available
for 6 Day Course subscribers: http://www.rocketlanguages.com/french/6day_special.php |
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