In this lesson you’ll learn how to say “cheers” in French. The common expression is “santé!”, which means “health!”. You can also say “tchin-tchin!”. In this lesson, we cover a total seven ways to say cheers and provide high-quality audio for each example.
santé
cheers
Expressions for cheers in French
1. À votre santé
À votre santé is one of the most polite ways to say cheers in French. It means to your health and actually comes from the middle ages.
à votre santé
Back then, people thought that alcohol was good for your health. They would drink in excess and thought that by throwing up they were purifying their bodies.
Now we know that alcohol in excess isn’t good for you. But still today, the French use à votre santé to wish someone good health while drinking on formal occasions.
2. À ta santé
Similar to à votre santé, à ta santé also means “to your health.” And it comes from the same tradition from the middle ages. The difference between the two is that à ta santé is the informal way to say cheers. Since it uses the tu form, it’s best to use among people you know well.
à ta santé
3. À la tienne
À la tienne is another really easy way to say cheers. It literally translates to “to yours,” but it is a shortened version of à ta santé so it really means “to your health.” This expression is also in the you singular form.
à la tienne
4. À la vôtre
À la vôtre is the formal version of à la tienne. Just like à la tienne, this means “to yours” and is a shortened version of à votre santé.
à la vôtre
5. À la nôtre
À la nôtre means “to ours” and is a great way to say cheers with a group of friends. Similarly to all of the phrases we just went over, à la nôtre is a shortened version of “to our health.”
à la nôtre
6. Tchin Tchin/Chin chin/Cin cin
In French, there are many different ways to spell tchin tchin. You usually shorten it to just tchin.
tchin tchin
Tchin tchin actually arrived in France in the beginning of the 20th century by soldiers coming back from the Second Opium War. It likely comes from the Chinese phrase qing qing, which means “please, please” in Mandarin Chinese.
The Chinese often used the phrase to invite someone to drink. This is why the French soldiers probably assumed it was a form of “cheers.” But it’s always interesting to see how different languages can influence French.
7. Yec’hed mat
Yec’hed mat is a more rare form of cheers. This is because you’ll likely only use it in the French region of Bretagne or Brittany. In the regional language of Brittany, Yec’hed means “health” and mat means “good.” So, when you clink glasses with a Breton and say “Yec’hed mat,” you’re also wishing them good health.
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