e thing as telling someone to “have a good evening.”
- Bonne means “good.”
- Soirée means “evening.”
- Pronounce this phrase as bahn swar-ray.
3Tell someone to enjoy a trip with "bon voyage," "bonne route," or "bonnes vacances." Each of these phrases can be translated into something along the lines of “have a good trip,” and each can be used to say goodbye to someone embarking on a journey or vacation.
- Voyage means “travel,” “trip,” or “journey,” so of the three, bon voyage translates most directly into “have a good trip.” Pronounce it as bahn voy-ahjz, with the final "ge" sounding like a soft "j."
- Route means “road,” “route,” or “way.” The phrase is generally used to say “have a good journey” or “have a safe journey,” and it is pronounced bahn rhoot.
- Vacances means “holiday” or “vacation,” so the phrase “bonnes vacances” means “have a good vacation” or “have a good holiday.” Pronounce it as boon vah-koons.
4Use "bonne continuation" for a brief meeting. This phrase is generally only used to say goodbye to someone whom you met briefly and will likely never meet again.
- The phrase can be translated to mean "good luck" or "good continuation," as "continuation" means the same thing in both French and English.
- Pronounce the phrase as bahn kohn-teen-u-ay-seohn.
5Tell someone to take care with "prends soin de toi." In English, this phrase means “take care of yourself.”
- Prends means "take."
- Soin means "care."
- In this context, de means "of."
- Toi means "you."
- Pronounce the entire phrase as prah swa doo twa.
6Wish someone good luck with "bonne chance" or "bon courage." Both sayings can be told to someone as you depart, and both mean “good luck” in some form.”
- Bonne chance is used when actual luck or fortune is involved. Chance means "luck," "chance," or "fortune." Pronounce bonne chance as bahn shahns.
- Bon courage is used to tell someone something along the lines of "be persistent" or "keep at it." Courage means "courage" or "fortitude." Pronounce bon courage as boon kooh-rhajh.
Method 3 of 3: Other Goodbyes
1Give a temporary goodbye with "à la prochaine" or "à bientôt." Both sayings mean something along the lines of "goodbye for now."
- Translated more directly, à la prochaine means "to the next," essentially meaning "until the next time we meet."
- Pronounce à la prochaine as "ah lah pro-shen.
- Directly translated, à bientôt means "to soon," but the basic meaning in English is "see you soon."
- Pronounce à bientôt as ah bee-ahn-too.
2Use "à plus tard" instead. This phrase roughly means "see you later."
- Translated more directly, it means "until later." The à means "to," plus means "more," and tard means "late."
- This phrase is already fairly informal, but you can make it even more informal by dropping off the tard and just saying à plus.
- Pronounce à plus tard as ah ploo tahr.
3Tell someone goodbye for the day with "à demain." This phrase means “see you tomorrow” or “until tomorrow.”
- Demain means “tomorrow” in English.
- Pronounce the phrase as ah doo-mahn.
4Use "à tout à l'heure" or "à tout de suite" when seeing someone soon. Both phrases mean something along the lines of "see you in a little while."
- Say à tout à l'heure to say "see you soon" or "see you in a while." Pronounce it as ah toot ah leur.
- Say à tout de suite" to say "see you in a second" or "see you in a little while." Pronounce it as a too day soo-eet.
5Tell someone new, "ravi d’avoir fait ta connaissance." This statement roughly translates into "Happy to have met you."
- Ravi means "delighted.
- The rest of the phrase, "d’avoir fait ta connaissance," translates roughly when broken down into its individual parts. When kept together, though, it can be translated as "to have met you."
- Pronounce the statement as rah-vee dah-vah fay ah kohn-nay-sahns.
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Sources and Citations
- ↑ http://www.uwosh.edu/home_pages/faculty_staff/minniear/pages/LanguageAids.pdf
- ↑ http://www.europa-pages.co.uk/lessons/french-basics.html
- ↑ http://www.wordreference.com/fren/adieu
- ↑ http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/phrase_boo