Essential French Vocabulary: Learn Some French in Less Than an Hour

French is not a hard language to learn, and it is good to know. If you plan on going on holiday in France, you should at least learn some common phrases. This lesson is divided up into sections so that if you want a word for something, you can look for the English word and then the words under it are all french for that word. also, french words are in italics and the English in bold.

i hope i helped!

Hello:

Bonjour – used as a polite “hello”, used when talking to adults. (this word originated from the french for “my lord”)

e.g. “Bonjour Monsieur (surname of person)”

Salut – used when talking to a well known friend, or a family member

e.g. “salut, Pierre!”

Bonsoir – this means “good evening”. used formally and informally.

e.g. “Bonsoir Michel!”

Bye:

Au revoir – a general “bye” used when talking to anyone. Used both formally and informally.

e.g. “Au revoir, Monsieur Byrne”

A beintot – say this if you expect to see the person again fairly soon. NOTE: the o has a ^ on it.

e.g. “A beintot, Claire”

How are you?:

Ca va? – this just means how are you. You just say “Ca va?” on its own.

Responses to “Ca va”:

Ca va : I’m OK 

Ca va bien : I’m good.

Ca va tres bien : I’m great

Pas Tres bien : I’m not great

pas bien : not good

Tres mal : Terrible

NOTE: good responses should end with “merci” meaning thank you.

Personal Pronouns:

Je – I

Tu – You

Il - Him

Elle – Her

Nous - We

Vous - You (plural)

Ils - They (boys or both boys and girls)

Elles – They (girls only)

Essential verbs :

Etre – To be

Avoir – to have

travailler – to work