Yes, "salut" (pronounced sah-loo) is a very common, informal French word that means both "hi" and "bye," functioning like a casual "ciao" for friends and family. You can use it to greet someone or say goodbye, but it's best for casual situations and not formal ones like a job interview.
2. The casual one: Salut! Meaning: “Bye!” About: Kind of functionally a French ciao or aloha, salut is a general greeting that can be used for both hello and goodbye.
The French word "Salut" is both a goodbye and a hello 👋 It's universally agreed upon that the French language is quite complicated. For example, the word salut can both be used as a goodbye and a greeting.
Salut is your casual "hi" or "hey." This informal French greeting works with friends, people your age, coworkers you're friendly with. Don't use it with your boss, elderly people, or anyone you just met in a formal setting.
Salut would not be considered rude and I don't believe it's quite on the familiarity level of "sup". I use Salut pretty liberally with family, friends and coworkers. Of course, if you're addressing strangers, professors or store employees, it's best to use Bonjour .
Here are some ways to say goodbye (or otherwise end a conversation) in French:
"French Leave" was a mildly racist term for desertion. Not leaving a party. Like other phrases like "Dutch courage" or "Dutch uncle" (both implying falseness), they were a reflection of who we were fighting at the time.
To respond to "Ça va?", use simple, context-dependent answers like "Ça va bien, merci, et toi/vous?" (Very well, thanks, and you?) for positive, polite replies, or "Pas mal" (Not bad), "Bof" (Meh/So-so), or even "Ça va mal" (Not well) for more nuanced feelings, often followed by asking back "Et toi?" (informal) or "Et vous?" (formal).
If you say something has a certain je ne sais quoi, you'll sound fancy instead of inarticulate. In French, je ne sais quoi literally means "I don't know what." It's used to capture an indescribable, special distinguishing feature, or to name some unnamable quality.
Key Takeaways. In France, bonjour is the most polite and common way to say hello any time of day. Salut is very informal and is best used when saying hi to friends or people your age.
The 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) in French learning means focusing on the 20% of vocabulary, grammar, and phrases that handle 80% of everyday conversations, allowing for rapid progress and practical communication by prioritizing high-frequency words, common sentence structures, and essential situations like the bakery or doctor. Instead of learning everything, you learn the right things (like "je," "il," "elle," common verbs) to quickly become functional and build confidence in real-life French.
How to End an Email in French: 23 Email Sign-Offs
Here are some of the most common French greetings and when to use them:
1 Emails are different from letters: you don't open with My dearest so-and-so, and you don't close with Your most obedient and humble servant. The greeting at the start is called the salutation, and the ending is called the valediction,2 or more commonly the complimentary close.
Just take it as a chunk: "qu'est-ce que" means "what" as an object, and "qu'est-ce qui" means "what" as a subject. '
Dutch leave (uncountable) An absence without permission.
The individual goodbyes are exhausting and so time consuming. For some gatherings it can take an hour just to say goodbye - ridiculous! I have always felt the “Irish exit” was a much politer way for all.
French speakers use c'est bon to say: okay / it's fine I understand let's begin that's enough all set The meaning changes entirely depending on context — and guessing wrong can sound confusing or abrupt.
In French, the '@' symbol is most commonly called "arobase" (pronounced ah-roh-baz) and is used for email addresses, though you might also hear "at", especially in digital contexts, and in Quebec, it's also known as "a commercial".
Desolé(e), je ne parle pas français (très bien) = I'm sorry, I don't speak French (very well) or like saying I don't speak French in French.
Three C's of Communication to Navigate Tough Conversations
When tensions rise, it's important to use the three C's of communication–confidence, clarity and control.