5 tips for saying bonjour like a local

“Bonjour.” It’s just saying hello in French, right? What could be easier? Well, yes but… there are a few interesting subtleties worth knowing as you start mingling with the locals in Paris and. 

When I first arrived in Paris, I was already pretty fluent but I quickly found myself in a fog of confusion about when and how to greet people. Feeling confident in saying hello in French during that fledgling time of your Parisian life can make all the difference.

One story that always makes me giggle is that of a friend of a friend from a small town in France. When she came to Paris for the first time, she stepped into the metro and gave a loud and happy “bonjour!” to everyone in the car. Not very Parisian, right? I’m sure it made everyone smile and warmed some frosty Parisian hearts. But if you want to say hi like a local, read on!

5 tips for saying bonjour like a local

1. When to say bonjour

Quick quiz: Which is most acceptable, A or B? 

You go into your local boulangerie and..

A. you don’t say bonjour but you smile profusely, bat your eyelids and ask for a baguette… s’il vous plait!

B. you say bonjour, looking utterly miserable and ask for a baguette… s’il vous plait…

The answer B of course! It doesn’t matter how much you smile or how charming you are, it’s practically an offense to omit bonjour! Why? Because in saying bonjour, you are acknowledging the basic existence of the other person. The opposite is true if you don’t say it… quel horreur!

Before any kind of interaction, like passing someone in your building or arriving at your workplace, bonjour is the magic word to get off on the right foot every day.

2. When not to say bonjour

Just like the metro anecdote above, there’s no need to say bonjour in busy, impersonal places (well, it depends, see point 5). It’s worth noting that if a stranger says bonjour to you, you don’t have to answer or engage in conversation. 

Walking around Paris on an average day, you’ll probably want to ignore a good few bonjours coming your way. Like in every big city, there are many random people wanting your attention for different reasons and if you engage, it can be hard to shake off a sudden, unwanted acquaintance. Don’t give your bonjour away too easily!

3. Once is enough!

Us anglophones get caught by this one pretty often. If you’ve said bonjour to a person once that day, don’t say it again until the next day. You saw that neighbour or you bumped into that colleague already today? Hold back that bonjour. If you say bonjour again, it’s as if you’ve forgotten seeing them that day. 

“But what do I say then?!” I hear you cry! The most common way around this is to say rebonjour or even just “Re” (with a throaty French “R” of course!). This goes down well and shows the other person that you remember the previous interaction.

4. Other ways to say hello in French

As a general rule, bonjour is the best word for saying hello in French. Once you start to develop friendships, you might evolve to more familiar greetings. The three most common greetings between friends are salut, coucou and hello. Yes, you read right – hello (albeit with a dropped ‘h’) has become a common way to say hi in a familiar way. 

Just as us anglophones think it’s cool to pepper some French into our speech, (you know, adding a little je ne sais quoi) it’s also cool for the French to drop in some English too. Saying “ ‘ello, comment ca va?” gives off a young, friendly, international vibe.

What about phone calls? Same rules apply, right? Wrong! Bonjour isn’t used when you answer a call. The most common way to answer a call is “oui, allo?”. However, if you are the one making the call, then you do indeed say bonjour!

5. Saying hello in French in very specific situations

It took me a while to get a clear mental note of those quirky bonjour moments only known to locals. Here are some examples:

Going into a shop 

You pretty much always exchange bonjours with the sales assistant when you enter a shop. Not doing so would be impolite. This one has anchored itself so well in my subconscious that it feels wrong not to say hello when I walk into shops back home.

Getting on a bus 

It’s expected for you to say bonjour to your bus driver and you will always get a bonjour back. I’ve often wondered how they manage it. Can you imagine how many times your average Parisian bus driver says bonjour in one day?!

At the cash register of the grocery store

This one always makes me smile because there is a specific moment to say bonjour – it’s when the cashier starts to scan your items. Yes, you might be standing in line right by the cashier but they’re still serving the customer in front of you so… wait for it… hold it back… nope, not yet, they’ve got to give the receipt…ok, now they’ve picked up your first item to scan and… BONJOUR! Phew, timed it right!

In a waiting room 

When you enter a small waiting room (not a big one like in an administrative centre), it’s expected that you give a little bonjour to acknowledge the others in the room. It’s not that anyone wants to engage in a conversation, far from it, it’s simply (in my opinion) for your average French person to avoid that awkward feeling of not having acknowledged the people they are sitting in a little room with. Don’t wait for those already in the room to say bonjour to you, it’s up to you as the new person entering to initiate the bonjour. Oh la la, ça si complique! 

In a lift (elevator)

Much like the waiting room scenario, it’s unbearable for the French to share a small space with people they haven’t acknowledged, even for a short lift ride. So when you step into a lift (aside big ones like at the airport or Ikea), a little bonjour goes a long way.

 However you say hello in Paris, don’t worry, keep calm, and be yourself. Part of the reason anglophones are so appreciated in Paris is because of our authenticity and warmth. 

Yes, you might feel a little goofy now and again as you get to grips with saying hey like a local, but it’s okay. In the eyes of the French, it’s all part of that exotic charm that, until you came to Paris, you didn’t even know you had.

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Now that you’ve learned how to say hello in French, you just might be ready to teach French children to say bonjour in English.