french
Welcome! I'm so excited to help you start your French journey today.
Before we dive in, I'd love to know a bit more about what's bringing you to the language and if you've ever tried learning it before.
I'm a complete beginner learning for travel!
Welcome! Traveling to a French-speaking destination is one of the most exciting reasons to learn the language.
Before we start practicing our first words, let's take a quick look at the roadmap we will use to build your travel-ready French skills. We'll start with warm greetings and self-introductions, then master some tricky pronunciation patterns, unlock the basic grammar structures, and finish with super practical survival vocabulary for ordering food and asking for directions.
Let's kick things off with the absolute core of French politeness: essential greetings.
In France and other Francophone regions, making eye contact and saying a warm "hello" is considered an essential social contract. If you walk into a bakery, step onto a bus, or approach a hotel reception desk without greeting the person first, it can be seen as quite impolite.
The gold standard, all-purpose greeting you'll use constantly is . Whether you are greeting a shopkeeper in the morning or a waiter at lunch, this is your go-to word.
Hello / Good morning
If you want to say hello in the evening, the word naturally shifts. Once the sun starts to set, locals switch over to using .
Good evening
Now, if you are chatting with friends, kids, or people your own age in a highly casual setting, you can use the informal shortcut Salut. Think of it as a friendly "hi" or "hey" (and funnily enough, it can also mean "bye" when you are leaving). Because it is highly informal, you will want to stick to bonjour or bonsoir when speaking to strangers, waiters, or hotel staff.
Hi / Bye (casual)
How do those three feel to read through? We can practice saying them, explore how to introduce yourself next, or even hear a quick audio format to get the sounds down.
Continue to introducing yourself (Je m'appelle...)
Introducing yourself is the perfect next step, and it's incredibly simple to learn.
To tell someone your name in French, you will use the phrase followed by your name. Even though it is used to mean "My name is," it literally translates to "I call myself."
My name is (literally: I call myself)
So, if your name is Alex, you would simply say, "Bonjour, je m'appelle Alex." It is the perfect, polite way to introduce yourself to anyone you meet on your travels.
Now, how would you say, "Hello, my name is..." using your own name?