🇫🇷 Stuff Every Traveler Should Say in French: Training Guide

Say hello and goodbye

Bonjour means hello during the day. Use it from morning through afternoon. It is the right word to greet a shopkeeper or waiter in the daytime.

Bonsoir is the evening greeting when you arrive somewhere, such as a restaurant after dark. It is not the same as bonne nuit, which people say when someone is going to bed.

Au revoir is the standard polite goodbye. Use it any time you leave a shop or say goodbye to someone. It literally means until seeing again.

Say please, thank you, and you're welcome

S'il vous plaît means please. Use it with strangers, staff, and older people because it uses the polite word vous. On signs it may be shortened to SVP.

Merci means thank you. To say thank you very much, say merci beaucoup.

When someone says merci to you, reply de rien. It means you're welcome or it was nothing.

Say sorry and get attention

Excusez-moi is the polite way to get a stranger's attention before asking a question. Follow it with bonjour to sound friendly and polite.

Pardon is a short sorry when you bump into someone or squeeze past. Said with a question tone, Pardon? asks someone to repeat.

If you do not understand, say Je ne comprends pas. You can add le français to say you do not understand French.

To ask someone to speak more slowly, say Pouvez-vous parler plus lentement ? Doucement also means slowly.

You in French: vous or tu

Use vous when you speak to strangers, staff, and older people. It is the polite word for you in French. Vous shows respect in shops, hotels, and with people you just met.

Use tu for family, friends, children, and pets. Wait until a French person invites you to use tu before switching from vous.

French even has verbs for this choice. Vouvoyer means to call someone vous, and tutoyer means to call them tu.

Say your name

Je m'appelle Sam means My name is Sam. It literally means I call myself Sam.

To ask a polite adult their name, say Comment vous appelez-vous ?

Do not say J'appelle Sam to give your name. J'appelle Sam means I am calling Sam, like on the phone.

Pleased to meet you

When you meet someone, say Enchanté. It means delighted or pleased to meet you.

A woman writes it enchantée with an extra e, but it sounds exactly the same.

Ask how someone is

To ask an adult you do not know well how they are, say Comment allez-vous ? It uses the polite vous.

With friends, the casual version is Ça va ? and a possible answer is just Ça va !

Où allez-vous means Where are you going, not How are you. Do not confuse it with Comment allez-vous.

French counting for 70, 80, 90

In France, 70 is soixante-dix. It means sixty plus ten, because soixante is 60 and dix is 10.

71 follows the pattern soixante et onze, literally sixty and eleven.

In France, 80 is quatre-vingts. Quatre means four and vingt means twenty, so four twenties make 80.

81 is quatre-vingt-un without the s. The s in quatre-vingts drops before another number.

In France, 90 is quatre-vingt-dix, four twenties plus ten. The number 99 is quatre-vingt-dix-neuf.

Belgium and Switzerland often use simpler words. Septante means 70 and nonante means 90 in those places.

Days of the week

In French, Tuesday is mardi. Monday is lundi and Wednesday is mercredi.

French writes the days with a small letter. So you write mardi, not Mardi, unless it starts a sentence.

Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, a famous carnival day.

Ask what time it is

To ask the time, say Quelle heure est-il ? Heure means hour or time on the clock.

France often uses the 24-hour clock. A train listed at 15 h leaves at 3 PM.

Do not confuse Quelle heure est-il with Quel âge avez-vous, which asks how old you are, or Quel jour sommes-nous, which asks what day it is.

Read public signs

SORTIE means exit or way out. Follow it to leave a station, museum, or theater. A sortie de secours is an emergency exit.

ENTRÉE means entrance. Entrée libre can mean free admission at a museum or no obligation to buy in a shop.

FERMÉ means closed and OUVERT means open. A sign Fermé le lundi means closed on Mondays.

POUSSEZ means push and TIREZ means pull. Poussez looks a little like the English word pull, so check before you pull.

To ask where the bathroom is, say Où sont les toilettes ? The public restroom is les toilettes, which is plural, so you use sont. Many signs just say WC.

Follow directions

Tournez à gauche means turn left. Gauche means left, and sur votre gauche means on your left.

C'est tout droit means straight ahead. Keep going straight on, not to the right.

Do not confuse tout droit with à droite, which means to the right. They sound a little alike.

To ask the way politely, start with Excusez-moi, où est... and add the place you want.

Ask about trains and metro

Où est la gare ? asks where the train station is. A gare routière is a station for long-distance buses.

Quelle ligne va à la tour Eiffel ? asks which metro line goes to the Eiffel Tower. Ligne means line.

Un billet pour Paris, aller-retour asks for a round-trip train ticket to Paris. Aller-retour means round trip, and un aller simple is one way.

Le train part à quelle heure ? asks what time the train leaves. Partir means to leave or depart.

Pouvez-vous m'appeler un taxi ? asks someone to call a taxi for you. Appeler means to call.

Order food and drink

When ordering, say Je voudrais... meaning I would like. It is more polite than je veux, which sounds blunt.

In France, la carte lists individual dishes, while le menu is often a fixed-price meal with several courses. Choose la carte if you want to pick dishes separately.

On a French menu, une entrée is a dish served before the main course, not the main course itself.

To ask for the check, say L'addition, s'il vous plaît. Régler l'addition means to pay the bill.

To ask for free tap water, say Une carafe d'eau, s'il vous plaît. A carafe d'eau is free when you eat or drink at a French restaurant or café.

If a bill says service compris, the service charge is already included. You do not need to add an extra tip.

Shop and pay

To ask how much something costs, say C'est combien ? or Combien ça coûte ? Both mean how much is it or how much does it cost.

In a clothing shop, Quelle taille faites-vous ? means What size do you wear?

To ask for a bigger size, say Avez-vous la taille au-dessus ? Au-dessus means above, so this asks for the size above.

To say something is too expensive, say C'est trop cher. Trop means too and cher means expensive.

To ask if you can pay by card, say Puis-je payer par carte ? Carte can mean card or map depending on context.

Hotel phrases

A hotel room is une chambre. Ask if one is available with Avez-vous une chambre disponible ?

To book a room for two nights, say Je voudrais réserver une chambre pour deux nuits. Réserver means to book or reserve.

Breakfast is le petit-déjeuner in France. Ask what time breakfast is with À quelle heure est le petit-déjeuner ?

The hotel front desk is la réception. The word comes from recevoir, to receive.

Health and emergencies

The pharmacy is la pharmacie. Ask where it is with Où est la pharmacie ?

In danger, cry Au secours ! It means Help. Premiers secours means first aid.

To call the police, shout Appelez la police ! Les pompiers are firefighters.

112 is the single European emergency number. It works in France and across the EU.