🇫🇷 French for beginners (A1) · Chapter 2

Greetings and introducing yourself

In France, walking into a shop without saying Bonjour is ruder than any grammar mistake you could make — and choosing tu or vous tells people exactly how you see them.

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The basics

Greetings are the fixed phrases you use to open, run and close every conversation: Bonjour, Ça va ?, Je m'appelle…, Au revoir.

The problem it solves: the first ten seconds decide how the French treat you. A clean Bonjour Madame and a correct vous buy you patience for every mistake that follows. Getting them wrong — Salut to a bank manager, no greeting at a bakery — reads as rude, not as foreign.

The mental model: treat greetings as chunks, not grammar. You don't need to understand why Je m'appelle means My name is (literally I call myself) — just say it as one block. Then add one decision on top: tu (friends, family, children, classmates) or vous (strangers, elders, shopkeepers, anyone at work until invited). It is like tu / tum / aap in Hindi — and when in doubt, choose vous, like aap.

Explained

A Parisian baker serves a hundred customers a morning. The one who walks up and says Une baguette, s'il vous plaît without Bonjour gets the coldest service of the day.

In French, Bonjour is not small talk — it is the entry ticket. Learn ten phrases in this lesson and you can open, run and close a polite conversation with anyone.

The phrases, in the order you use them

Open

• Bonjour (bohn-ZHOOR) — hello, good day
• Bonsoir (bohn-SWAHR) — good evening
• Salut (sa-LÜ) — hi (friends only)

Check in

• Ça va ? (sa VA) — how's it going?
• Comment allez-vous ? (ko-mahn-ta-lay-VOO) — how are you? (polite)
• Ça va bien, merci. Et toi / Et vous ? — fine, thanks. And you?

Introduce

• Je m'appelle Raj. (zhuh ma-PEL) — my name is Raj
• Je suis indien / indienne. (zhuh swee-zan-DYAN / zan-DYEN) — I'm Indian
• J'habite à Pune. (zha-BEET a) — I live in Pune
• Enchanté(e). (ahn-shahn-TAY) — pleased to meet you

Close

• Au revoir (oh ruh-VWAHR) · À bientôt (a byan-TOH) — see you soon · À demain (a duh-MAN) — see you tomorrow

Tu or vous? The decision

           Is this person a friend, family,
           a child, or a classmate your age?
                 /                 \
               YES                  NO
                |                    |
               TU          Stranger, elder, shopkeeper,
          (like tum)        teacher, boss, colleague?
                                     |
                                   VOUS
                                 (like aap)
                                     |
                     Did they say « On se tutoie ? »
                     (shall we use tu?)  → then TU

  Talking to TWO OR MORE people → always VOUS

Vous does two jobs: polite you to one person, and you all to a group.

First day at a French company's Bengaluru office

Ananya meets her manager, Claire, who has flown in from Lyon.

Claire : Bonjour ! Je m'appelle Claire. Et vous ?

Ananya : Bonjour Madame. Je m'appelle Ananya. Enchantée !

Claire : Enchantée. Vous êtes d'où ? (Where are you from?)

Ananya : Je suis indienne, de Hyderabad. Mais j'habite à Bangalore.

Claire : Très bien. Comment allez-vous ?

Ananya : Je vais bien, merci. Et vous ?

Claire : Très bien. Et on se tutoie, d'accord ? (Let's use tu, OK?)

Ananya : D'accord ! À demain, Claire.

Notice: Ananya starts with vous and Madame, and switches to tu only when Claire offers it.

Why 'Je m'appelle' and not 'Mon nom est'

Mon nom est Raj (my name is Raj) is grammatically fine but sounds like a form being read aloud. Everyone actually says Je m'appelle Raj — literally I call myself Raj.

To ask someone's name:

• Comment tu t'appelles ? (ko-MAHN tü ta-PEL) — friends
• Comment vous appelez-vous ? (ko-MAHN voo-za-play-VOO) — polite

This is the French answer to the Indian-English What is your good name? — polite, set, and nobody parses it word by word.

Bonjour opens every door. Vous until invited.

tu = tum, vous = aap — and when you can't decide, choose aap.

Bonne nuit = goodnight in bed. Leaving a party at 11 pm is still Bonsoir or Au revoir.

Classic mistakes Indian learners make

• Je suis bien for I'm fine — sounds like I'm comfortable (in a chair). Say Je vais bien or Ça va bien.
• Skipping Bonjour before a question at a shop, desk or ticket counter. Always greet first.
• Bonne nuit as a greeting at night — it means sleep well. Use Bonsoir.
• Tu with a professor or boss because English you has no levels. Default to vous.
• Capitalising nationalities — je suis Indien ✗ → je suis indien ✓. Only the noun for people is capital: les Indiens.
• Mademoiselle for young women — now dated, even slightly rude in official contexts. Use Madame.
• Saying Salut to strangers — it's like greeting your bank manager with Hey bro.

Pick the right greeting

It's 8:30 pm. You walk into a small pharmacy in Toulouse. An older woman is at the counter.

Write your opening line and your closing line.

Words to know

In two minutes

• Open every interaction — shop, bus, office, lift — with Bonjour (day) or Bonsoir (evening), ideally plus Monsieur or Madame.
• Salut is informal and means both hi and bye; use it only with friends and people your age.
• Tu is for friends, family, children and classmates; vous is for strangers, elders, shop staff and colleagues until they suggest tu — like aap vs tum.
• Introduce yourself in chunks: Je m'appelle Ananya. Je suis indienne. J'habite à Bangalore.
• Ça va ? → Ça va bien, merci. Et toi ? (or Et vous ?) — never Je suis bien for 'I'm fine'.
• Close with Au revoir, À bientôt or À demain; Bonne nuit is only for bedtime.
• Enchanté (man) / Enchantée (woman) = pleased to meet you — same sound, different spelling.

Test yourself

There are 9 questions, 3 puzzles and 4 recall cards for this lesson in the app — the recall cards come back on later days, just before you would forget.