--- title: Hello and goodbye: greetings — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Hello and goodbye: greetings», a lesson of the french course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: In France a greeting is not a nice extra: you say bonjour to the baker, the bus driver and the doctor before anything else, and skipping it so --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/) / Hello and goodbye: greetings # Hello and goodbye: greetings Lesson 4 of the french course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/0/) — In France a greeting is not a nice extra: you say bonjour to the baker, the bus driver and the doctor before anything else, and skipping it sounds rude. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/1/) — Picture a school trip: Josh bursts into a bakery in Boulogne, shouts "Hiya!" and points at a cake; the baker just stares until he says "Bonjour, madame". - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/2/) — French has a polite way and a friendly way to say hello: bonjour works with everyone, salut only with friends, family and kids your age. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/3/) — Goodbyes tell you when you will meet again: à demain is tomorrow, à bientôt is soon, à plus is later. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/4/) — Young people also have slang greetings, like wesh; it is real French, but street French, for friends only. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/5/) — Bonjour ! ("bon-ZHOOR") means hello or good morning and is used all day until the evening. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/6/) — Salut ! ("sa-LU") means hi or bye between friends, children and family; it sounds too cheeky with a teacher or shopkeeper. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/7/) — Au revoir ! ("oh ruh-VWAR") means goodbye; it is written as two words and works with anyone. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/8/) — Bonsoir ! ("bon-SWAR") means good evening and is a hello; Bonne nuit ! ("bon NWEE") means good night and is said only before bed. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/10/) — With the voice going up, ça va is a question; with the voice going down, it is an answer. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/11/) — Comment tu t'appelles ? means "What's your name?" and the answer is Je m'appelle..., "I call myself...". - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/12/) — La bise is a light greeting with cheeks touching and a kiss in the air; two is common in Paris, while some regions do one, three or even four. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/13/) — A handshake, or a smile and "bonjour", is always fine if you are not sure. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/14/) — Coucou ! ("koo-KOO") is a warm, playful hi for family, small children and good friends; un coucou is also a cuckoo bird. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/15/) — À demain ! means see you tomorrow, À bientôt ! means see you soon, and À plus ! ("a PLUSS") means see you later; teens write it A+. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/16/) — Enchanté ! means "pleased to meet you"; a girl or woman writes Enchantée, with an extra e, but it sounds the same. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/17/) — Wesh is a slang hi among French teenagers that came from Arabic; Bien ou quoi ? is slang for "You alright?" - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/4-hello-and-goodbye-greetings/18/) — Slang here: "hiya" (UK) means hi; "wicked" (Boston) means very; "grand" (Ireland) means fine; "gonnae" (Scotland) means going to; "salty" means annoyed; "skibidi talk" is kids' word for nonsense talk. - ← previous: [Accents: é, è, ê, ç and friends](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/3-accents-e-e-e-c-and-friends/) - next →: [Tu or vous? Manners in French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/5-tu-or-vous-manners-in-french/) - ↑ back to [French](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/french/)