by Mercisa Contributor on November 21, 2009
Meeting up with friends is a great thing that the French look forward to; they are amazingly social creatures, despite how they are portrayed in movies and such. Meeting new people is even better!
When a young person meets another of similar age, that is to say, a peer or classmate, often they will introduce themselves following the traditional greeting.
An exchange such as this is quite typical:
A young guy: Bonjour, je m’appelle Marc.
A young lady, in response: Et moi, je m’appelle Nathalie.
Literally, je m’appelle translates to I name myself, or I call myself…followed of course by your name. Basically, when stated, the person is saying, my name is… You may also ask a person for their name by the following statement:
Comment t’appelles-tu?
Which literally translates to How do you call yourself? Plain and simple, what’s your name?
In response to the above, a person may answer by stating the following:
Moi, je m’appelle Isabelle.
Translation: Me, my name is Isabelle.
When you query another person’s name, expect for a quick request to do the same. Once they state their name, they would be polite in asking you to do the same by stating:
Et toi? Or Et toi? Comment t’appelles-tu?
Translation: And you? What is your name.
To which you would respond:
Je m’appelle <insert your name here>.
In our next post, we will examine how one would go about querying other things such as age and origins. Till then.
Isabelle
by Mercisa Staff on November 16, 2009
More often than not, young French people greet each other with the less formal “Salut” in lieu of Bonjour. Think of it as a “hi” as opposed to “hello.” While this pattern may be used among friends, particularly among the young crowd, it is less likely to be heard in the adult circles, where Bonjour is used almost without exception.
Note that even if the chosen greeting among the young crowd is Salut, when said young crowd greet adults, such as their teachers, the more formal Bonjour is used along with monsieur, madame or mademoiselle. As explained in the previous post, the last name is not typically used in greeting people.
So, among friends, Salut rules.
In greeting adults, whip out that Bonjour + monsieur/madame/mademoiselle.
An adult, when greeted with a respectful Bonjour from a younger person, would respond in kind. They too will greet with a Bonjour; however, they will employ the person’s first name.
So, a typical exchange could look like this:
young man to his teacher: bonjour, monsieur.
teacher to the young man: bonjour, Pierre.
When the conversation or engagement is over, it is customary to say good bye. The French do that by saying au revoir. The same rule applies to au revoir as did to bonjour. For example:
teacher to the young man: au revoir, Pierre.
young man to his teacher: au revoir, monsieur.
In saying their good byes, young people also tend to use a less formal approach. Au revoir is too long, and they settle for Salut once again. Thus, for the young crowd, amongst friends, it is Salut for “hi” and Salut for “goodbye.”
Next time, we will look at how the French probe each other after the hello greeting is out of the way. After all, they need to know the scoop, right? Name, age, from where, do they watch vampire movies, etc…
Isabelle
by Mercisa Staff on November 8, 2009
Our inaugural post. If you are a novice French speaker and would like to learn more about the French language, then you have arrived at the right place. In this site we will endeavor to improve your ability to communicate in French, one phrase at a time.
We have to start somewhere, so why not at the top? Most likely, the first word you will hear when your conversation with a Francophone begins will be the word “bonjour.”
This is the French word for “hello” and they almost always use it to start a conversation. This is no different from how English speakers say “hello” when they initiate a conversation with someone.
The younger crowd will need to append monsieur, madame, or mademoiselle when they greet adults. It conveys respect. For example, a young student may greet her teacher by stating “bonjour madame.”
Note that when greeting an adult, “bonjour madame” will suffice, as the last name is typically not used in greeting people.
Saying Goodbye in French is accomplished with the words “au revoir.” Just as you would start a conversation with “bonjour” so too must you end it with “au revoir.” There are other opening and closing greetings of course, but for now, consider bonjour and au revoir your two main bookends to a conversation. One to start, and one to close.
The same rules apply to au revoir as they do to bonjour. That is, to convey respect, append monsieur, madame, or mademoiselle to au revoir. As with bonjour, the use of the last name is not necessary.
Recap: open a conversation with bonjour (append monsieur, madame, or mademoiselle as required) and close the conversation with au revoir (append monsieur, madame, or mademoiselle as needed).
In our next post, we will examine the use of salut in place of bonjour, with a focus on when it would be appropriate to do so. Also, we will examine additional conversation starters and how best to respond to them.
Till Then,
Isabelle