60+ Essential French Phrases for Beginners to Start Speaking Now

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What are some French sayings? What are the most common phrases in French? And can learning a few powerful French phrases really help you start speaking right away?

Absolutely!

Even if you'll only be spending a short time in the country, learning a few basic French phrases can be very rewarding and make a big difference to your trip.

Let’s start by mastering some of the most common French phrases you need to know as a beginner:

I've long advocated that set phrases are the best thing for beginners to learn when starting out.

After all, isn't the goal of language learning to communicate?

How do you expect to communicate with anybody if the only thing you've learned so far is a verb table?

So whether you're planning to travel to Paris for a week or move to Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! for the rest of your life, here are the most important and useful French phrases that you should learn A.S.A.P.

Editor's note: Before we get started, if you’re looking for an online French course, here’s the course we recommend: French Uncovered – Learn French Through the Power of Story, a course with a fascinating new method by Olly Richards. You can try it for free for 7 days!

Listen to the French Phrases:

Here's a quick “French phrases” video I made that will help you with pronunciation for most of the phrases in this article:

Before we get started, if you’re looking for an online French course, here’s the course I recommend: French Uncovered – Learn French Through the Power of Story, a course with a fascinating new method by my friend Olly.

French Greetings and Polite Phrases

Bonjour – “Hello”

There are many ways in French to say “hello”, but bonjour is one of the most common. It’s polite in many everyday situations, though the best greeting depends on the context and who you’re speaking to.

Bonjour is a combination of the words bon (“good”) and jour (“day”).

In the evening, you could also say bonsoir (“good evening”). A more casual way to greet people is salut, which can mean either “hi!” or “bye!”.

S'il vous plaît / s'il te plaît – “Please”

As a tourist, the last thing you want to be is rude. So when in France, remember what your mother taught you, and say s'il vous plaît (“please”) when making a request.

You can also say s'il te plaît. What's the difference? It's all about “you”:

In French there are two ways of saying “you”.

Tu is what you'd use when addressing a friend. Vous is a more polite and formal version, best used when talking to a stranger or older person.

(Vous is also what you should use when addressing a group of people in any situation, similar to saying “you guys” or “you all” in English).

So s'il vous plaît and s'il te plaît both mean “please” (literally, “if it pleases you”), but s'il vous plaît is the more polite version. If in doubt, use s'il vous plaît.

(Why is it s'il te plaît and not s'il tu plaît? It's a grammatical point that you don't need to worry about as a beginner. Learn the phrase as a whole for now, and it will make more sense later.)

In fact, when asking for something in French – e.g. asking a stranger for directions or asking to see a menu in a restaurant, you should start with “Bonjour. S'il vous plaît…” It literally means “Hello, please…”, which would sound a bit strange in English, but it's the normal way to start a polite request in French.

Comment vous appelez-vous? / Comment t'appelles-tu? – “What’s your name?”

When meeting anyone, one of the first things you'll want to know is their name.

In French, you can find it out by asking “Comment vous appelez-vous?” (formal) or “Comment t'appelles-tu?” (informal).

Literally, these questions mean “what do you call yourself?”. You could also ask “c'est quoi ton nom?” – which is a more literal translation of “what's your name?”

If you're on the receiving end of this question, answer with “Je m'appelle…” (“my name is”, literally “I call myself”) or a simple “Je suis…” (“I am…”).

Oui/Non/Si – “Yes/No”

Two essential words to learn in any language are “yes” and “no”. In French, “yes” is oui and “no” is non.

Informally, it's also common to say ouais or ouaip instead of oui – like saying “yeah” or “yep” in English.

Then you have si. This is a handy little word that has no direct equivalent in English. Use it to say “yes” when someone asks you a negatively phrased question.

To illustrate what I mean, imagine that someone asks you, in English, “haven't you been to Paris?”

If you reply “yes”, it's not exactly clear what you're saying. Do you mean “yes, I have been to Paris – contrary to your assertion” or “yes, you're correct: I haven't been to Paris”?

French avoids this confusion with the word si. It means “yes”, but more specifically it contradicts the assertion in the question. In the above example, if you say si, it clearly conveys that you have, in fact, been to Paris.

Si is one of many linguistic features that I sorely miss when I speak English.

Comment allez-vous? – “How are you?”

This is the polite way of saying “how are you?” in French. Note the use of the polite vous rather than the informal tu.

Another, more informal way to say “how are you?” is ça va? This phrase is extremely common – when in France you'll likely hear it several times per day.

If someone asks you “ça va?”, you can respond with a simple “ça va bien” – “it's going well”.

Excusez-moi – “Excuse me”

To get someone's attention, whether they're a waiter in a restaurant or a stranger on the street, say “excusez-moi”, “excuse me”.

This is also the polite way to ask someone to get out of your way. For example, if you're trying to exit a crowded train, a soft “excusez-moi” should (hopefully) be enough to make people step aside.

Pardon – “Sorry”

Picture getting off a crowded train, being careful you don't bump into anyone as you walk through the crowded metro station. But if a collision does occur, it's fine. Just say pardon, “sorry”, and all will be forgiven.

“Pardon?” is also how you'd ask someone to repeat themselves if you didn't hear or understand what they said. In this case, you should say it with a rising tone to indicate that it's a question.

Another way to say this is “pourriez-vous répéter, s’il vous plaît?” – “Could you repeat, please?”

Merci beaucoup – “Thanks a lot”

And of course, don't forget to say thank you!

The French word for “thank you” is merci. Or you can make it stronger by saying merci beaucoup – “thanks very much”.

Use merci in all the same situations you'd say “thank you” in English.

Other Must-Know French Greetings and Polite Phrases:

• Nice to meet you – Enchanté
• How’s it going? – Comment ça va?
• And you? – Et toi?
• Are you well? – Vous allez bien?
• What’s new? / What’s up? – Quoi de neuf?
• Good, thanks! – Bien, merci!
• So-so / It’s okay – Comme ci, comme ça (literally, “like this, like that”; understandable, though you may hear other replies more often)
• Same as always – Comme d’hab
• It could be worse – Ça pourrait être pire
• One possible reply to “thank you” – Je t’en prie (informal and context-dependent)
• Don’t mention it / You’re welcome – De rien
• Goodbye – Au revoir
• See you soon – À bientôt!

French Phrases for Maintaining a Conversation

Je voudrais parler français – “I would like to speak French”

Some people may switch to English when they hear you’re learning French, often because they’re trying to help or keep the conversation moving.

That can be frustrating when you want to practise, so politely ask to keep speaking French if the situation allows.

If someone switches to English, you can say “Je voudrais parler français” (“I'd like to speak French”) and see whether they’re happy to continue in French.

Note that, unlike in English, names of languages are not written with a capital letter in French.

Je ne comprends pas – “I don’t understand”

Sometimes pardon doesn't quite cut it. If you really can't figure out what the other person is saying, try telling them “je ne comprends pas” – “I don't understand.”

There's no shame in being a beginner! If you don't understand something, try another phrase in French before falling back to English, as long as the situation allows.

Que veut dire ça ? – “What does that mean?”

Maybe the reason you didn't understand is because there was a specific word you didn't recognise. If that's the case, say “que veut dire X ?” – “What does X mean?”

You can also phrase this as “ça veut dire quoi?” – “What does that mean?”

Plus lentement – “More slowly”

Sometimes, vocabulary isn’t the problem. You’d know the words if you could make them out, but you can't because the other person is talking too fast!

In this case, try saying plus lentement – “more slowly”.

Better yet, say a full sentence: “Pourriez-vous parler plus lentement, s’il vous plaît?” – “Can you speak more slowly, please?”

Comment dit-on __ en français? – “How do you say __ in French?”

What if you need to say something in French, but the exact word escapes you?

Just fill in the blank in the above sentence: “Comment dit-on X en français?” means “How do you say X in French”?

A side note: the pronoun on, seen above, is an interesting one. It’s a colloquial alternative to nous (“we”). However, on is also used to refer to an unspecified person or people in general, like the word “one” is sometimes used in formal English. (If you speak German, note that on in this sense is like the German word man.)

One doesn't use the word “one” very much in modern English – one finds it rather old-timey and stuffy. These days you normally use “you” when you're talking about people in general.

Comment ça s’écrit ? – “How do you spell that?”

If you learn a new French word using the phrase above, you might want to write it down before you forget it.

Unfortunately, French spelling isn't the easiest.

The relationship between spelling and French pronunciation can be complicated. Generally, it's easier to figure out a word's pronunciation from its spelling than it is to know its spelling from its pronunciation. I wrote a guide to help you with French pronunciation here.

So if you're not sure, ask someone “Comment ça s’écrit ?” – “How do you spell that?” Literally: “How does that write itself?”

Or if you don't trust your own transcription abilities, try asking them to write it for you: say “Est-ce que vous pouvez l'écrire?” – “Can you write it (down)?”

Other Helpful Phrases for Maintaining a French Conversation:

• Can you speak more slowly please? – Pouvez-vous parler plus lentement s'il vous plaît?
• Can you say it one more time? – Pouvez-vous le dire une fois de plus?
• Do you speak French? – Parlez-vous français?
• Do you understand? – Comprenez-vous ?
• What do you do for a living? – Qu’est-ce que tu fais dans la vie?
• How old are you? – Quel âge as-tu?
• I’m _ years old – J’ai _ ans
• Where are you from? – D'où êtes-vous?
• I’m from… – Je viens de…
• Are you married? – Es-tu marié?
• Are you single? – Es-tu célibataire?
• When can we meet? – Quand pouvons-nous nous rencontrer?
• What’s your phone number? – Quel est ton numéro de téléphone?

French Phrases for Getting Around

Où est…? – “Where is…?”

Struggling to find your way around? Not to worry. Just get a stranger's attention (remember what phrase would you use to do this?) and ask “où est X” – “Where is X?”

“X” could be many things: la Tour Eiffel, le Louvre, Notre Dame… or perhaps something less exotic, like le métro or un restaurant.

Où se trouve la station de métro la plus proche? – “Where is the closest metro station?”

Another way of saying “where is it?” is où se trouve, literally “where is (it) found”.

Here's an example of où se trouve combined with another handy phrase to know: la station de métro la plus proche means “the closest metro station”.

One more piece of useful vocabulary: once you're in the metro station, you might want to ask someone “où est le guichet?” – “Where is the ticket window?”

Je voudrais acheter un billet – “I would like to buy a ticket”

Now that you've found the guichet, you probably want to buy a billet – a ticket. But what type of ticket do you want?

• un billet aller simple – a one-way ticket
• un billet aller-retour – a round-trip ticket

Make your decision, and tell the assistant “je voudrais un billet aller simple/retour pour X” – “I would like to buy a one-way/round-trip ticket to X”, where X is your destination.

C'est combien? – “How much is it?”

France isn't the cheapest of countries – so whether you're at the guichet or elsewhere, it doesn't hurt to be price-conscious.

To ask how much something costs, say “c'est combien?” – “how much is it?” You can also say “Combien ça coûte?” – literally, “how much does it cost?”

Où sont les toilettes? – “Where are the toilets?”

It's worth learning this phrase, because you might need it in a hurry! Où sont les toilettes means “where are the toilets?”

Public toilets can be easier to find in some places than others, and some charge a fee.

If you can't find one, you can ask in a nearby café, though their toilets may be for customers only.

(Why is it “où sont“, when previously we used “où est“? Easy: sont means “are” while est means “is”. Since toilettes is plural, you must use sont, not est – “where are the toilets?”, rather than “where is the toilets”, which wouldn’t make sense.)

À quelle heure faut-il libérer la chambre ? – “What time is check-out?”

If you're checking into a hotel in a French-speaking country, one useful thing to know is the check-out time.

One way to ask is “À quelle heure faut-il libérer la chambre ?” – “What time is check-out?”

La carte/le menu, s’il vous plaît. – “The menu, please.”

France is famous for its food, so while you're there, you'll probably want to dine in a restaurant or two!

When dining out in any language, there are usually a few subtleties around how to order. Here I'll explain one of the more important things to know in French: the words for “menu”.

I say “words” because there are two main ways to say “menu” in French.

The general word is carte, which you may recognise from the expression à la carte.

A carte is what you typically think of when you hear the word “menu”. It's a list of individually-priced options; you pick and choose what you want, then add up the prices to get your total bill.

But you can also ask for a menu, which is usually called a “fixed-price menu” in English. When ordering from a menu, you pick an option for each course (starter, main course, etc.) and pay the same, fixed price no matter what you selected.

Whichever option you choose, inform the serveur/serveuse (“waiter/waitress”) by saying “la carte/le menu, s’il vous plaît” – “the menu/fixed-price menu, please.”

Je ne peux pas manger… – “I can’t eat…”

This doesn't apply to everybody, but for those to whom it does apply, it's very important: informing the waiter about your dietary restrictions.

The simplest way to do this is to say “je ne peux pas manger de X” – “I can't eat X”. Here are some of the more common ways to fill in the blank:

• cacahuètes – peanuts
• noix – nuts
• gluten – gluten
• fruits de mer – shellfish
• œufs – eggs
• poisson – fish
• produits laitiers – dairy products
• soja – soy
• viande – meat

If you're vegetarian, say so with “je suis végétarien” (for men) or “végétarienne” (for women.)

A vegan is a “végétalien(ne)“, although végan/végane is sometimes used too.

You could also explain “je ne consomme pas de produits animaux.” – “I don't consume animal products”

Nous voudrions commander maintenant. – “We would like to place an order now.”

To “order” in French is commander, when you're talking about ordering something in a restaurant.

Don't confuse this with ordonner, which is used in the sense of “to order a person to do something”, such as in the military.

After receiving the carte or the menu, and perhaps informing the waiter of your dietary restrictions, you may be given some time to make a decision. When you're ready, say “nous voudrions commander maintenant” – “we'd like to order now.”

It’s also acceptable in nearly any restaurant to use on instead of nous for we, as I mentioned earlier: On voudrait commander maintenant.

Or if you're by yourself, say je voudrais (I'd like) instead of nous voudrions (we'd like). Bon appétit!

L’addition, s’il vous plaît. – “The bill, please”

One final bit of restaurant-related vocabulary – the bill (or “check” if you're American) is l'addition.

So when you're ready to leave, say l’addition, s’il vous plaît – “the bill, please”.

You’ll often hear la facture used in Quebec instead of l’addition – however both are perfectly understandable to waitstaff.

Other French Phrases for Out and About in France:

• Can you help me please? – Pouvez-vous m'aider s'il vous plaît?
• I would like… – Je voudrais…
• I’d like one of those please – J'en voudrais un s'il vous plaît
• One: Un
• Two: Deux
• Three: Trois
• Four: Quatre
• Five: Cinq

Learn more: French Numbers: Counting in French from 1 – 100+

Romantic French Phrases

Je t'aime – “I love you”

Finally, let’s talk about love.

They say that French is a romantic language, so maybe in your travels you'll find love on the road? Or maybe after you get home, you'll want to use your newfound French skills to woo that special someone.

So how do you say “I love you” in French?

Adorer often expresses strong enthusiasm for a thing, place or activity, but it can also be used about people, depending on the context and relationship.

For romantic “I love you”, say je t'aime. When it refers to a person, aimer can mean “love”, while aimer bien is closer to “like”. Use it wisely!

Here are some other romantic French phrases:

• My heart – Mon cœur
• My love – Mon amour
• You’re beautiful – Tu es belle (to a woman); Tu es beau (to a man)
• You’re too cute – Tu es trop mignon (to a man); Tu es trop mignonne (to a woman)
• I like you (Lit: “You please me”) – Tu me plais

Bonus: French Slang

Wondering what a famous French saying is that you could use in everyday life? Or how do you say “cool” in French slang?

Here are some bonus French sayings and slang to level up your French:

• Cool – Cool (yes, really! Just say it with a French accent 😉)
• Awesome – Génial
• That sucks – C’est nul
• That’s great – C’est top
• Don’t worry – T'inquiète
• Losing my mind – Perdre la tête

Over to You

Can you think of any other useful French phrases for tourists? What are the most important words and phrases for beginners to know? Let us know in the comments.

And if you’re ready to learn more French, check out the 111 core French words that are commonly used. Or learn some more fun French slang!