French Greetings: Bonjour, Salut, Coucou — When to Use Each

The essential French greetings are bonjour (bohn-ZHOOR — “hello,” safe with everyone), bonsoir (bohn-SWAHR — “good evening,” after roughly 6 p.m.), salut (sah-LU — casual “hi” for friends), and coucou (koo-KOO — an affectionate “hey!” reserved for people you’re close to). Which one you pick matters far more than in English: greetings are where French registers its famous formality, and choosing wrong is the single fastest way to sound either rude or weirdly stiff.

Here’s the good news — the rules are few, consistent, and learnable in ten minutes. Let’s go through them the way I’d teach them in a first lesson.

The four hellos, at a glance

French	Pronunciation	English	Who it’s for
Bonjour	bohn-ZHOOR	Hello / Good day	Everyone — the universal default
Bonsoir	bohn-SWAHR	Good evening	Everyone, after ~6 p.m.
Salut	sah-LU	Hi / Hey	Friends, family, peers your age
Coucou	koo-KOO	Hey you!	Close friends, partners, kids

One thing to notice immediately: the final letters of salut are silent, and the nasal “on” in bonjour means your tongue never actually touches for the “n.” If those respellings look mysterious, my guide to the 10 French sounds English speakers get wrong covers nasal vowels and the French u in detail.

Bonjour: the non-negotiable greeting

Bonjour is not just “hello” — in France it’s a social contract. Walking into a bakery, a pharmacy, a small shop, or up to any stranger and launching into your request without saying bonjour first is genuinely considered rude. The transaction hasn’t started until both parties have said it. Say bonjour, get a bonjour back, and then ask for your croissant.

Three rules govern it:

• One bonjour per person per day. If you greet the same colleague or shopkeeper a second time, saying bonjour again quietly implies you forgot the first meeting. The fix is re-bonjour (ruh-bohn-ZHOOR) — literally “re-hello” — usually said with a smile, or a simple “re !” among younger Parisians.
• It works at any hour before evening. French has no everyday “good morning” — bon matin is not a thing in France (Québec, yes; Paris, no). From 7 a.m. to early evening, it’s bonjour all the way.
• Add the title in formal settings. Bonjour madame (bohn-zhoor mah-DAHM), bonjour monsieur (bohn-zhoor muh-SYUH). In shops and offices this tiny addition instantly reads as polite and well-brought-up.

Bonsoir and the time-of-day switch

Around 6 p.m. — earlier in winter when night falls, later in summer — bonjour hands over to bonsoir (bohn-SWAHR). There’s no official cutoff; French people themselves hesitate at 5:45 p.m. and nobody will blink if you get it “wrong” by an hour. The switch is about arriving: bonsoir is how you greet someone in the evening.

Leaving is different. When you part ways, you wish the person a good rest-of-the-day:

• Bonne journée (bun zhoor-NAY) — “have a good day,” said when leaving, never when arriving
• Bonne soirée (bun swah-RAY) — “have a good evening”
• Bonne nuit (bun NWEE) — “good night,” strictly for someone actually going to bed. Saying bonne nuit to your waiter at 9 p.m. is a classic — and charming — beginner mistake.

Teacher’s tip: the arrival/departure distinction is the whole system. Bonjour/bonsoir = hello. Bonne journée/bonne soirée = goodbye-with-good-wishes. Mixing them up is understood, but keeping them straight is what makes you sound like you’ve actually lived in France.

Salut and coucou: the casual register

Salut (sah-LU — the t is silent) is the everyday “hi” between friends, classmates, family, and colleagues you’re on tu terms with. It conveniently works for both hello and goodbye, like the Italian ciao. The rule of thumb: if you’d use tu with someone, salut is fine; if you’re in vous territory, stick to bonjour. (Unsure about tu vs vous? The 30-second rule is in my guide to the 100 most common French phrases.)

Coucou (koo-KOO) is a notch warmer and more playful — think “hey you!” It’s what you text a good friend, what parents say to children, what couples say to each other. Parisians in their twenties and thirties use it constantly in messages: “Coucou, ça va ?” Use it with your boss and you’ll get a raised eyebrow; use it with a friend and you’ll get a smile.

Two more you’ll hear in Paris:

• Ça va ? (sah VAH) — “how’s it going?” — often functions as the greeting itself. The beautiful thing is that the answer is the same words: Ça va ! (“I’m good”). “Ça va ?” “Ça va, et toi ?” is a complete, perfectly natural exchange.
• Quoi de neuf ? (kwah duh NUHF) — “what’s new?” — casual, friendly, expects an actual (short) answer.

La bise: the cheek-kiss protocol

No guide to French greetings survives without la bise — the light cheek-to-cheek kiss (it’s really a cheek touch with a kiss sound, not a kiss planted on skin) exchanged between friends, family, and often friendly acquaintances.

What you actually need to know:

• In Paris, it’s two kisses, usually starting on the left cheek (their right). Other regions do one, three, even four — the French joke about this confusion themselves, so nobody expects a foreigner to get it right.
• Who does it: friends and family greeting each other; women with women, women with men, and increasingly men with men among younger generations (though many men still shake hands with each other).
• Who doesn’t: strangers in shops, professional contexts with people you’ve just met, and any vous relationship where a handshake fits. In offices, colleagues who know each other well may faire la bise on arrival — follow the room.
• As a foreigner, you have a free pass. If someone leans in, go with it — cheek touch, kiss sound, switch sides. If you’d rather not, a warm handshake and bonjour is never wrong. Since 2020, plenty of French people themselves have downgraded to a wave.

Teacher’s tip: never initiate la bise with someone you just met in a formal setting. Let the French person set the protocol — they always will, usually within the first two seconds.

Saying goodbye

A quick tour of exits, from formal to casual:

French	Pronunciation	English	Register
Au revoir	oh ruh-VWAHR	Goodbye	Neutral — works everywhere
Bonne journée / soirée	bun zhoor-NAY / swah-RAY	Have a good day / evening	Neutral, very common in shops
À bientôt	ah byeh(n)-TOH	See you soon	Neutral
À demain	ah duh-MEH(N)	See you tomorrow	Neutral
À tout à l’heure	ah too tah LUHR	See you later (same day)	Neutral
À plus / À plus tard	ah PLUS / ah plew TAR	See ya / Later	Casual — texted as “A+“
Salut !	sah-LU	Bye!	Casual

The one nuance worth flagging: à tout à l’heure promises you’ll see the person again later the same day. If you won’t, use à bientôt or à plus.

Putting it together

A complete polite interaction in a Parisian bakery sounds like this:

— Bonjour madame ! (bohn-zhoor mah-DAHM) — Bonjour monsieur. (the greeting contract is now fulfilled) — Une baguette, s’il vous plaît. (ewn bah-GEHT seel voo PLEH) — Voilà. Autre chose ? (“Anything else?”) — Non merci, c’est tout. Bonne journée ! (say TOO — bun zhoor-NAY) — Bonne journée, au revoir !

Greeting on arrival, good wishes on departure — that’s the full ritual, and it’s 80% of sounding polite in France. The natural next step is what comes right after the hello: introducing yourself in French, where the same formal/casual split shows up again.

FAQ

What is the most common French greeting?

Bonjour — by an enormous margin. It works with strangers, friends, shopkeepers, and officials, at any time from morning until early evening. If you learn one French word before a trip, make it this one, and say it before every request: in France, skipping the bonjour is read as rudeness, not efficiency.

What’s the difference between salut and bonjour?

Register. Bonjour is neutral-to-formal and safe with everyone; salut is casual and belongs with friends, family, and peers — the same people you’d address as tu. Using salut with a stranger or a waiter sounds overly familiar, while using bonjour with close friends just sounds a touch stiff, never rude. When in doubt, bonjour wins.

How do you say good morning in French?

You say bonjour. Metropolitan French has no separate everyday “good morning” — bon matin is used in Québec but sounds wrong in France. Bonjour covers the entire day until roughly 6 p.m., when bonsoir takes over for the evening.

How many kisses is la bise in Paris?

Two — one on each cheek, typically starting on the left. The number varies by region (one in parts of Brittany, three in the southeast, four in pockets of the north), which the French themselves find confusing. As a visitor you’re not expected to know the local count; just follow the other person’s lead.

Is it rude to say coucou to someone you don’t know well?

It’s not rude so much as jarringly intimate — like greeting a new colleague with “hey sweetie.” Coucou is for close friends, partners, children, and warm text messages. With anyone you’d address as vous, stick to bonjour; with casual acquaintances, salut is the safe informal choice.