How Do You Say Goodbye in French? 9 Farewells by Situation

The one to use when you're not sure

If you only learn one farewell, make it au revoir. It is polite without being stiff, and you can say it to a baker, a hotel clerk or a friend's parents without anyone noticing. Adding madame or monsieur (au revoir, madame) makes it warmer in shops and is the habit most French speakers expect from customers.

The phrase breaks down as au (to the) + revoir (seeing again), the same idea as English "see you" but more formal in feel. It is spelled as two words; aurevoir written together is a common error.

How au revoir is really pronounced

Textbooks print it as three syllables, but that is not what you hear in Paris. Wiktionnaire gives two pronunciations, \o ʁə.vwaʁ\ and \ɔʁ.vwaʁ\, and the second one, with the middle vowel dropped, is the everyday version. Camille Chevalier of French Today describes the same thing: in modern spoken French the phrase comes out "more like [orvoir] in one sound, gliding over the 'e'." If you pronounce every letter carefully you will be understood, but you will sound like a recording.

Two other pronunciation traps sit in the casual farewells. In à plus tard the s of plus is silent; in the short form à plus it is pronounced, so it sounds like "a pluss." And in à tout à l'heure the t of tout is heard because of the liaison with à, which is why the spoken short form à toute is written with an e.

Where au revoir comes from

Wiktionnaire's etymology note says the verb revoir was commonly used as a noun in Old French, and that the phrase seems to be a contraction of adieu jusqu'au revoir (goodbye until the seeing-again). A second theory, that it shortens au plaisir de vous revoir, is listed there as unproven.

The same entry quotes a scene that shows the difference between the two words better than any definition. At the end of Alexandre Dumas's Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, the dying d'Artagnan says au revoir to Athos and Porthos, who died years earlier, as if he will meet them again in death, and then a final adieu to Aramis, who is far away and still alive.

Nine farewells by register

The table orders the phrases from most formal to most casual. The "Use with" column is the decision that matters: French separates people you address as vous from people you address as tu, and the casual farewells belong to the tu side. (If that distinction is new, our French pronouns guide covers it.)

Two rows cause most mistakes. Salut works for both hello and goodbye, which is convenient with friends and slightly rude with a shopkeeper. À tout à l'heure means later today; saying it to someone you won't see until next week sounds like a mix-up.

Is adieu a final goodbye?

In standard French, usually yes. Larousse defines adieu as the formula used when leaving someone you will not see again for a long time or ever, and that is how most speakers in France hear it. English speakers tend to use it as a theatrical "farewell," and that tone carries over: said to a colleague at the end of the day, it sounds like you are quitting.

The exception is regional. The same Larousse entry notes that in the south of France (le Midi) adieu can still serve as an everyday greeting or goodbye. Unless you are there and hearing locals use it that way, stick with au revoir.

When people in France do use it today, it is often a joke. French Today gives the example of someone heading to an appointment they expect to be painful: Je vais parler à mon banquier… Adieu ! (I'm going to talk to my banker… goodbye forever!)

Farewells tied to a time

French has a simple pattern for "see you then": à plus a time. French Today lists à demain (see you tomorrow), à ce soir (see you tonight), à lundi with any day of the week, and à dans trois semaines (see you in three weeks). It is the most flexible farewell in the language, and nobody will think it odd.

Three time phrases are easy to confuse. À tout de suite means you will see the person again almost immediately, like "see you in a minute." À la prochaine means roughly the same as à bientôt, and French Today calls it the more fashionable of the two. Bonne nuit is not "good evening" but what you say right before someone goes to bed, closer to "sleep well"; for leaving a dinner or a shop at night, use bonne soirée. The same guide says bonne après-midi is possible but not common at all.

You can stack them. "Au revoir ! Bonne soirée !" is a normal way to leave, and French Today's author says she usually uses the two together.

Regional goodbyes worth knowing

French is not the same farewell everywhere. The Office québécois de la langue française says that in Quebec people commonly say bonjour, during the day, when they leave someone, in the sense of au revoir. In an official setting, such as ending a professional phone call, it recommends au revoir instead. Hearing "bonjour" as someone walks out of a Montreal shop is normal, not a mistake.

The OQLF treats this as old French, not a local invention. It says the goodbye sense of bonjour has been attested since at least the 17th century, and that au revoir took over from the end of the 18th century, which narrowed bonjour to greetings in general usage. The leaving-bonjour stayed alive in Quebec, in some regions of France and in Louisiana French. Its examples are ordinary family talk: Tu pars déjà? Alors bonjour et à demain. (You're leaving already? Bye then, see you tomorrow.)

Wiktionnaire's synonym list for au revoir adds a few more regional labels: tourlou in Quebec and à la revoyance in Switzerland. Regional uses like these sit alongside au revoir; they do not replace it.

What to say back

French farewells are usually mirrored. If someone says au revoir, answer au revoir (plus madame or monsieur if they used it). If a shop assistant says bonne journée, the natural reply is merci, vous aussi (thanks, you too) or merci, à vous aussi. With friends, salut gets salut, and à plus gets à plus.

Once you have the farewells down, the French imperative guide covers the command forms behind phrases like passe une bonne soirée.