The default toast: Santé
Santé literally means "health." As a toast it is the short form speakers reach for when glasses come up. Français avec Pierre's everyday-situations guide lists Santé as one of the most frequent lines at the moment of trinquer (clinking glasses), alongside the fuller à votre santé.
Loanword greetings are in ciao meaning.
Cambridge Dictionary's entry for tchin-tchin defines that interjection as "ce que l'on dit avant de boire" and translates it cheers, with Santé given as a synonym. So both Santé and tchin-tchin map to the English toast slot; they are not rival technical terms.
Formality table for French toasts
| French | Literal sense | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Santé | Health | Default short cheers |
| À votre santé | To your health (vous) | Formal singular, or any plural group |
| À ta santé | To your health (tu) | One person you address as tu |
| À la vôtre / à la tienne | To yours | Common reply to a toast aimed at you |
| Tchin-tchin | (toast interjection) | Familiar clink; Cambridge: cheers |
Master Your French's toasting guide matches that split: à votre santé for polite or plural address, à ta santé when you tutoie someone, and à la vôtre as the return toast. Those lines are about register, not about different drinks.
Tchin-tchin without over-explaining the etymology
Learner pages often retell a Second Opium War borrowing story for tchin-tchin. This article does not need that anecdote to answer the search. What matters for learners is usage: Cambridge treats it as the thing you say before drinking, synonymous with Santé, and French guides flag it as familiar rather than ceremonial.
If you want one line that works almost anywhere glasses are raised among adults, Santé is enough. If someone toasts you with à votre santé, à la vôtre is the natural mirror.
What this page does not settle
Bar folklore about never crossing arms while clinking, or never toasting with water, varies by group and is not a grammar rule. Français avec Pierre and similar guides describe habits, not civil-code requirements. Follow the table of the people you are with.