French Greetings (French Essentials Lesson 1)

Bonjour et bienvenue à Learn French with Alexa. Alexa, c'est moi. In this series entitled French Essentials, I will teach you some basic French vocabulary which may come useful if you travel to France or any French-speaking countries. Or if you meet the man of your life or the woman of your life who just happens to be French. You have to start somewhere. So, let's start by the very beginning. Let's start by the very beginning with some greetings. Bonjour et bienvenue. Je m'appelle Alexa. Je suis française. Je parle français et anglais. Comment ça va? Of course, bonjour is hello. And bienvenue is welcome. Je m'appelle is one way of saying my name is. It literally means I call myself. But you just also could say Je suis Alexa. I am. Je suis. Or you could also say Mon nom est Alexa. My name is Alexa. Now, repeat using your name. Can you say Bonjour, je m'appelle... Then your name Comment ça va? Can you say that? Très bien. Comment ça va? Means how are you? Comment ça va? You would answer by Oui, ça va bien. I'm okay. Ça va bien. You could also say Ça va mal. I'm not okay. Or Ça va pas mal. I'm not bad. Or you could say Ça va comme-ci, comme-ça. I'm say-say like this, like that. And that's what comme-ci, comme-ça means. Or you just could simply say Ça va. I'm okay. Ça va. Sometimes you may hear Comment allez-vous? Or Comment vas-tu? Now, they both means how are you? But literally means how are you going? Okay? It means how are you? You use the vous form for formal way when you talk to someone you don't know or when you talk to a group of more than one person. Okay? And tu to someone you know, who you know very well. Okay? So Comment ça va? Comment allez-vous? Or Comment vas-tu? Now, listen again. Bonjour. Je m'appelle Alexa. Je suis française. Je parle français et anglais. Comment ça va? Ça va bien. Merci. Merci means thank you. Obviously, when I said Je suis française, it means I am French. When I said Je parle français et anglais, I speak French and English. Why don't you try it yourself now? Tell me what your name is, whether you're okay, and what language you speak. Okay. Now, let's learn some polite phrases. Learn how to say please and thank you and so on. S'il te plaît or s'il vous plaît Again, depending on who you're talking to means please. S'il te plaît. Can you say that? S'il te plaît. Well done. Now, translated word for word, it means if it pleases you. Okay. Now, the vous in s'il vous plaît is used in a more formal way when you talk to someone you do not know or when you're talking to more than one person as I mentioned earlier. Okay. Thank you is merci. Merci and not mercy like I hear quite often. Merci. Okay. Merci. And your welcome is de rien. It's okay. De rien. It's nothing. De rien. You may have heard of merci beaucoup which means thank you very much or a lot, beaucoup. If you wanted to say excuse me, you could either say excusez-moi or excuse-moi. Okay. Again, depending on whether you're talking to a person that you know well or that you want to use a more formal way. Okay. You will notice that excusez-moi seems quite easy to remember since it sounds very similar to excuse me. Excusez-moi. Can you hear that? Or you could also say pardonnez-moi or pardonne-moi. It literally means forgive me. Pardon. You know this word, don't you? Pardon. Okay. That means sorry or forgive. Okay. Now, let's finish by saying our goodbyes. You could say au revoir. Literally means to see you again. Au revoir. Goodbye. Or salut which means hi or bye. But it's more informal so I would be careful when using it. If you were to go to bed, you would say bonne nuit. That means good night. Bonne nuit. Or bonsoir for good evening or goodbye as well. Bonsoir. Bonne journée. Have a nice day. Bonne journée. And jour means day. And journée means day as well. Bonne soirée. Have a nice evening. Bonne soirée. And another way of saying goodbye would be à bientôt. See you soon. À bientôt. Now, you have as well à tout à l'heure. À tout à l'heure. Which means see you later. À tout à l'heure. As in I will see you today again shortly and not maybe tomorrow. So, à tout à l'heure means see you later shortly in the same day. Okay. Right now, we have covered some useful words. Why don't you repeat all these words after me? Okay? And again, watch this video again to get used to the greetings. Okay? Repeat after me. Répétez après moi. Bonjour. Très bien. Bienvenue. Je m'appelle. Comment ça va? Oui, ça va bien. Ça va mal. Ça va pas mal. Ça va. Ça va comme ci, comme ça. Comment allez-vous? Comment vas-tu? Merci. S'il te plaît. S'il vous plaît. De rien. Excusez-moi. Excuse-moi. Pardonnez-moi. Pardonne-moi. Pardon. Au revoir. Bonne nuit. Bonsoir. Bonne journée. Bonne soirée. À bientôt. À tout à l'heure. Okay. What I suggest you do is go over these words over and over again. Watch this video again. Okay? That's it for me. Au revoir, monsieur. Mister. Au revoir, madame. Misses. Au revoir, mademoiselle. Miss. Bisous, bisous.