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How To Say "How Are You" in French and Sound Like A Local
How To Say "How Are You" in French and Sound Like A Local
You walk to your friend, ask him “comment allez-vous ?” (how are you) and expect a passionate answer about what’s he’s been up to lately.
Instead, your friend simply answers “good, and you?”.
What did you do wrong?
Not much.
In fact, the only mistake you made was to use the wrong “how are you”.
In French, there are at least 15 ways to say “how are you”.
Use the right “how are you” and French people will open up to you and gladly tell you about their day, thoughts and feelings.
Use the wrong form and they’ll tell you “bien merci” while you’re left wondering what to say next.
Today, I’d like to show you 10 common ways to say “how are you” in French and explain when and how to use each variation so you can easily
connect with people, start conversations and show how much you care.
Contents
1 10 authentic ways to say “how are you” in French
1.1 The classical “how are you”
1.2 The awkward “how are you”
1.3 The friendly “how are you”
1.4 The short “how are you”
1.5 The French slang “how are you”
1.6 The deep “how are you”
1.7 The concerned “how are you”
1.8 The casual “how are you”
1.9 The positive “how are you”
1.10 The relaxed “how are you”
2 How to answer “how are you?”
3 Over to you
I say safely, because you won’t offend anyone by using it. However, it’s not the best “how are you” to use in informal situations.
It litterally means “how go you”. In French, we don’t use the verb “to be” in “how are you” and alwayse use “to go” instead.
That’s similar to the way “how is it going” is constructed except that “comment allez-vous” is way more formal.
However, it also uses the inversion way of asking questions which is considered formal.
The end result is a “how are you” stuck between formal and informal French.
I personally never use it, because I prefer “comment allez-vous” in formal situations and “ça va ?” in informal situations, and feel that “comment
vas-tu” doesn’t belong anywhere and ends up being either too informal or too formal.
However, some people like to use it when they write to people they know well, but still want to sound serious. “Comment vas-tu” would fit nicely
in a romantic letter for example.
You can use it with friends, family members and people you know well. Basically, with anyone you’re on a “tu” basis with.
You can use ça va ? the same way you’d use “comment ça va ?”.
You just need to know that “ça va” is often considered less serious than “comment ça va” and other French “how are you” starting with
“comment”, so people are less likely to give you a deep answer.
In fact, the most common answer to “ça va ?” is…”ça va” (literally: it goes), meaning everything is going well.
“ça va” is similar to the English “how are you” greeting. You use it more to say “hello” than ask a person how she is doing.
You can also start with “ça va” as a greeting and later ask “comment tu vas ?” to indicate that you now expect a more detailed answer. This is
common if you meet someone in a public space or in a group and want to wait to be in a more intimate setting to talk.
If you like to be positive, you can also say “ça va bien ?” (is it going well?), but again, don’t expect a deep answer.
The last three answers sound formal, but you’re actually unlikely to use them in a formal context, because they sound negative and many people
consider that your answer to “how are you” should always be positive in a formal context.
After answering “how are you”, it’s polite to ask the person how she is doing.