What is the meaning of “Salut” in French?

The informal French greeting “Salut!” (pronounced sah-lu) has several meanings including hi and bye. The French strictly use salut with acquaintances and not strangers. In more formal situations the French use both bonjour and au revoir. Keep reading to learn how to use salut in conversational French.

Salut

Hi/bye

Uses of salut in French

Using salut to say “hi!”

In informal situations, the French use salut as a greeting to say “hi!”.

Salut, mon ami! Ça va?

Hello my friend! How’s it going?

Salut les gars! Je m’appelle Sylvie.

Hi guys. My name is Sylvie.

Using salut to say “bye!”

Similarly, the French use salut as in informal way of saying “bye!”

Salut tout le monde! Je m’en vais maintenant !

Bye everybody! I’m leaving now.

Salut! À la prochaine !

Bye! See you next time!

More usages of salut

Salut has a few more uses. As a verb, “saluer” means to greet.

Je salue les invités quand ils arrivent.

I greet the guests when they arrive.

As a noun “un salut” means a wave or nod.

Je lui fais un salut de main.

I give him a wave of the hand.

Salut pronunciation

To pronounce salut say: “sah-lu”. The -u is what I call the “pointed -u” like in the word tu (you familiar). The -t is completely silent. The French reading rules dictate that if a word ends in vowel plus consonant, the consonant is silent.

YouTube French teacher, Julien, explains how to pronounce salut in this video: