In French, there are several ways to say “nice to meet you”. The most common word is “enchanté”. However, there are more expressions. This post will explore eight ways to say nice to meet you in French for formal and informal situations.
Enchanté!
Nice to meet you!
Ways to say nice to meet you in French
Nice to meet you in French (formal)
The French love their formalities. If you find yourself in doubt on which form to use when meeting somebody for the first time, go with the following formal options.
The only exception to this of course is if you were meeting a child for the first time. It would look ridiculous in French culture to use the formal form with a child.
To say “nice to meet you” in formal situations, use one of the following two phrase:
Je suis enchanté(e) de faire votre connaissance.
Nice to meet you (formal).
In addition to the word, “enchanté”, you can equally use the word “ravi“, which translates to thrilled, delighted or “over the moon”. Here’s how to say nice to meet you in the familiar form using “ravi”:
Je suis ravi(e) de faire votre connaissance.
Nice to meet you (formal).
Nice to meet in French (informal)
Use the following for less formal situations. You’d use this for people in your peer group and kids. The votre (your, formal) becomes ta (you, informal).
Je suis enchanté(e) de faire ta connaissance.
Nice to meet you (informal)
This sentence translates literally to “I am enchanted to make your acquaintance”. The extra -e indicates the feminine form of the adjective, enchanté.
You can also use the exact same sentences with the adjective ravi (ravished, delighted).
Je suis ravi(e) de faire ta connaissance.
Nice to meet you (informal).
Note that unlike, “enchanté !”, which can be used as a single-word exclamation for “nice to meet you”, you cannot exclaim, “ravi !”.
Again, these phrases just mentioned are strictly for somebody in your peer group. It would be very impolite to use them in a formal situation and in doing so you’d most likely get labeled a “stupid American”.
Other ways of saying nice to meet you in French
“Enchanté” is not the only game in town for saying “nice to meet you”. The French verb “rencontrer“ means “to meet”.
C’est un plaisir de vous rencontrer.
Nice to meet you (formal).
One more way of saying “nice to meet you” uses the adjective “heureux/heureuse“, which means “happy”.
Heureux(se) de faire votre connaissance.
Happy to meet you.
Often in English we use the line, “I’ve heard good (or nice) things about you”. The French have use a similar line:
On m’a beaucoup parlé de vous.
(Literal translation: One has spoken to me a lot about you).
When parting ways, you can use the expression “au plaisir” (it’s been a pleasure!).
Au plaisir!
It’s been a pleasure!
Related lessons:
- French greetings
- Je m’appelle – My name is
- Bonjour usage and pronunciation
- Au revoir usage and pronunciation
Word of the Day lessons | Lessons by David Issokson
thanks so much, your lessons are awesome, the way in which you are enunciating (as a man, trying to learn french), is so helpful…thanks for all of your time and energy and wisdom you have put into these lessons… I am hoping to travel and work in France in the fashion/beauty/makeup industry and I am starting to brush up on my french, which is pretty good, from what I studied in high school… I need to find and learn makeup and beauty vocabulary, lol! Merci beaucoup!