French Greetings: Bonjour, Salut, Coucou Explained

English speakers reach for “hi” everywhere, but French hands you a small menu and expects you to pick the right item. The good news: you don’t have to memorize a long list. Two questions decide almost every greeting — how well do I know this person? and is it day or evening? Once those click, you’ll greet a baker, a boss, and a best friend without a second’s hesitation.

The two questions that pick your greeting

Every French greeting sits on two axes. The first is formality: bonjour and bonsoir are neutral and safe with absolutely anyone, while salut and coucou are reserved for people you’re close to. The second is time of day: daytime greetings differ from evening ones. Layer a third question for goodbyes — am I arriving or leaving? — and you have the whole system.

When you’re unsure, default to bonjour (or bonsoir after dark). It is never wrong, never rude, and never too cold. The casual greetings are the ones that get learners into trouble, so think of them as a privilege you earn with a relationship.

French	English	When
bonjour	hello / good day	anyone, daytime
bonsoir	good evening	anyone, evening
salut	hi / hey	friends only
coucou	hiya / hey there	close friends, kids
enchanté	nice to meet you	first introduction

Bonjour vs. bonsoir: it’s about the time of day

Bonjour literally fuses bon (good) and jour (day), and it covers both morning and afternoon — French has no separate word for “good afternoon.” Sometime around 5–6 p.m., when it starts to feel like evening, you switch to bonsoir. There’s no hard clock cutoff; it’s a vibe more than a rule, so don’t overthink the exact minute.

One quirk sets bonsoir apart: it works both when you arrive and when you leave. Bonjour is arrival-only — you’ll never use it to say goodbye.

This once-a-day rule is part of a deeper French politeness reflex. Walking into a shop, a waiting room, or a small office without a bonjour reads as genuinely rude, not shy. We unpack that whole social contract in the bonjour rule and French etiquette — it’s worth reading before your next trip.

Salut and coucou: for friends only

Salut is your casual “hi” or “hey,” perfect with friends, family, classmates, and peers. It has a handy double life: it also means “bye.” But keep it out of professional first contact, away from shop counters, and never aim it at an elder or a stranger — there it can sound disrespectful.

Coucou is softer and more affectionate still — think “hiya.” It’s the warm hello you’d send a close friend, a partner, or a small child. Drop it on someone you don’t know and you’ll sound oddly intimate. (As a noun, by the way, coucou is also the cuckoo bird, which is exactly the playful energy the greeting carries.)

The greeting you choose travels with the right “you.” Formal bonjour pairs with vous and Comment allez-vous ?; casual salut pairs with tu and Ça va ?. If that tu/vous split is still fuzzy, the tu vs. vous guide shows you exactly when to use each.

Saying goodbye: bonne journée, bonne soirée, bonne nuit

Here’s where many learners slip. To part during the day, you don’t say bonjour — you wish someone a good rest of their day with bonne journée (“have a good day”). In the evening it’s bonne soirée (“have a good evening”). And bonne nuit (“good night”) is reserved for when the person is actually heading to bed — not a general evening goodbye.

French	English	When
au revoir	goodbye	anyone, any time
bonne journée	have a good day	leaving, daytime
bonne soirée	have a good evening	leaving, evening
bonne nuit	good night	going to sleep
à bientôt	see you soon	vague future

Why -ée means feminine means bonne

There’s a neat rule hiding here. French distinguishes a point in time from a span of time: le jour is “the day” as a unit, while la journée is the whole stretch of daylight you live through. The same pattern gives you le matin / la matinée, le soir / la soirée, and l’an / l’année.

That’s why greetings use the short form (bonjour, bonsoir) but parting wishes use the -ée span form: when you leave, you’re wishing someone a good rest of the period. Those -ée words are feminine, which is why the adjective is bonne, not bon — hence bonne journée, bonne soirée, bonne année. This little span-vs-point split runs all through the language, much like the patterns in French noun gender rules.

Special cases: allô, enchanté, and ciao

A few greetings live in their own corner. Allô ? is phone-only — it answers a call or checks the line is still live. Never walk up to someone and say allô in person; that’s a textbook learner mistake.

Enchanté(e) is “nice to meet you,” said at a first introduction, usually right after names are exchanged. One subtlety: it agrees with the speaker, so a woman writes enchantée and a man writes enchanté — though both sound identical out loud. And ciao, borrowed straight from Italian, is a breezy, very casual “bye” that’s popular with younger speakers.

How to pronounce them without the giveaways

Two pronunciation traps catch nearly everyone. In salut, the final t is silent — say “sa-LÜ,” never “sa-LOOT.” The u is the tight French u (round your lips and try to say “ee”). Yet in coucou, the vowel is an ordinary English “oo” (“koo-KOO”) — so resist the urge to over-French it.

French	English
bonjour	bon-ZHOOR (nasal on, soft throat r)
salut	sa-LÜ (silent t, tight French u)
au revoir	oh ruh-VWAHR (oi = wahr)

Start with just two words this week: bonjour for arrivals and au revoir for departures. Add bonsoir once you notice the evening light, sprinkle in salut with friends, and save coucou for the people who already make you smile. Lead with the greeting, every single time, and you’ll sound polite from your very first conversation.