How do you say “goodbye” in French?
The most common and formal way to say goodbye in French is “au revoir” (pronounced o vwaʀ). The most common informal word for goodbye or simply “bye!” is “salut!” (pronounced sah-lu). Keep reading to learn the top-15 most common words and expressions for saying goodbye in French.
Top-5 words for goodbye in French
The following are the top ways of saying good-bye in French. Try to master them first before you move onto the more advanced phrases and expressions.
- Au revoir (goodbye)
- Salut (Bye!)
- À la prochaine (See you next time!)
- À tout à l’heure! (See you later!)
- À plus tard! = See you later!
How do you say goodbye in French?
1 – Au revoir = See you again
“Au revoir” is the most common and most formal way of saying goodbye in French. Au revoir literally means “until I see you again” with the “au” meaning “to” and “revoir” meaning “re-see”. The most important thing is to not pronounced the “re”. Hence, the pronunciation sounds like “oh vwar”.
On this page we examine au revoir in greater detail.
2 – Salut! = Bye! (Informal)
“Salut!” is another extremely common way of saying goodbye.
However, it’s informal and should only be used with people you know know well and kids. It would be very impolite to say “salut” in a business situation or with total strangers.
This lesson examines the word salut in detail and provides pronunciation tips as well as example sentences.
3 – À la prochaine = See you next time!
“À la prochaine” is an expression that translates to “see you next time”.
The literal translation of à la prochaine is “to the next” and what it really means is “À la prochaine fois”, with the word “fois” meaning “time”.
4 – À tout à l’heure! See you later!
“À tout à l’heure” translates to see you later.
But, what’s important to keep in mind is that this expression is used to say “see you later” within the same day.
So, if it were the morning and you were seeing somebody a few hours later in the afternoon, you could say à tout à l’heure! If you were seeing at any time other than on the same day, you would not use à tout à l’heure. You would use the next expression on our list.
5 – À plus tard! = See you later!
“À plus tard” is another way of saying see you later!
Unlike the previous expression you can use this to say “see you later” for the same day or another day or time in the future.
6 – À tout de suite! See you right away!
“À tout de suite” means “see you soon” but what it really implies is “see you right away”.
For example, if somebody calls you to tell you they’ll arrive in five minutes you can tell them, À tout de suite!
To pronounce “tout de suite“, say the final -t on tout and do not say the “de”.
7 – Adieu! Goodbye!
“Adieu” means goodbye but it has a rather serious connotation as it implies “goodbye forever”. It’s used most often when somebody passes away. Adieu can also translate to “so long!”. The word “adieu” is almost never used as a way to say goodbye conversational French.
8 – Ciao! Bye!
“Ciao!” comes from Italian and means bye.
It’s very informal and used mainly between friends and people you already know very well. Ciao is very common and equates to “salut!” for saying goodbye.
9 – Bon, Je te laisse! Well, I’m off!
“Bon, Je te laisse!” is an expression which translates literally to “good, I leave you!”.
However, another translation is “Well, I’m off”. You would use this expression at the end of a conversation or spending some time with somebody. You could also use this expression at the end of telephone conversations.
10 – À demain! See you tomorrow!
“À demain!” means see you tomorrow. The “À” here means see you and “demain” means tomorrow. Hence, “à demain” means “see you tomorrow!”
11 – À + day of week!
À plus any day of the week means see you on that given day. “À lundi!” means “see you on Monday!” Hence, here’s how to say “see you” on any given weekday:
- À lundi! See you Monday!
- À mardi! See you Tuesday!
- À mercredi! See you Wednesday!
- À jeudi! See you Thursday!
- À vendredi! See you Friday!
- À samedi! See you Saturday!
- À dimanche! See you Sunday!
12 – Je m’en vais! I’m outta here!
“Je m’en vais!” is what you’d say when leaving a group of people after you’ve been with them for a while.
The infinitive, “s’en aller” means to be off. This page covers the conjugation of aller (to go) in detail. “S’en aller” is conjugated with example sentences towards the bottom of the page.
13 – Je me casse! I’m outta here!
“Je me casse!” is slang and is the more informal version of “je m’en vais”. This phrase translates to “I’m outta here!”. The verb casser means “to break”. “Se casser” as a reflexive verb means “to be off” or “to be out of here”.
14 – Bonne continuation!
The expression “bonne continuation!” is used when you’ve known somebody for a given period of time and you’re now parting ways.
You use this to express best wishes in the other person’s future endeavors. According to WordReference, “bonne condinuation” translates to “keep it up.
15 – Bonjour! Good-bye in French Canadian
It might seem strange to see “bonjour” on this list here because it means hello.
However, in Québec and other French-speaking regions of Canada you can use “bonjour” at the end of a conversation to wish somebody a good day.
This page covers “bonjour” in the context of saying hello in detail.
Goodbye in French – Summary table
| French | English | Usage & notes |
| Au revoir | Goodbye | Formal way of saying good-bye. Do not pronounce the "re". Pronunciation: Oh wvahr. |
| Salut! | Bye! | Informal for friends, close acquaintances and kids. Do not use in formal situations. |
| À la prochaine | See you next time! | Expression used at end of conversations and when parting ways. |
| À tout à l'heure! | See you later! | Use this expression when you'll see the other person again on the same day. |
| À plus tard! | See you later! | Informal expression. Can be used when seeing the other person on the same day or a different day. |
Become an expert in French Greetings!
Discover more pages on our site covering French greetings including: 20 ways to say hello, 25 greeting words, 7 ways to say “nice to meet you” and 7 common ways to ask “How are you?”. These pages provide in-depth coverage of the words “bonjour“ (hello), “salut“ (both hi and bye) and “ça va?” (how’s it going?).
Discover more:
- Au Revoir: Goodbye In French
- Bonjour – Hello in French
- Ça va meaning and usage
- D’accord meaning and usage
- Salut meaning and usage
Suggested audio French courses from Frenchtoday.com
- French Songs: 18 Top French Hits You’ll Love - June 1, 2023
- French appetizers: 20 Hors d’oeuvres You Will Love - May 26, 2023
- 20 Most Famous French Women In History - May 16, 2023
About David Issokson
Bonjour! My name is David Issokson. I'm based in Victor, Idaho (near Jackson, Wyoming) and have helped hundreds of students to learn French online since 2013.
