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