See, hear and learn the 3 most common ways to say how are you in French: comment-allez vous, comment vas-tu and (comment) ça va?
When my niece who learned how to speak French taking French classes saw me this new year, she greeted me with : ‘comment-allez vous?’ in order to ask me how are you in French. Quite impressive for the following reason:
Comment-allez vous is the most formal and polite way to ask somebody how are you in French. When you are amongst friends, you would use the more informal or casual way to say how are you: comment vas-tu?
- Comment means "how" in French.
- Allez-vous and vas-tu are 2 ways to say "go you" in French: the first way is the formal and utterly polite way, the latter is the one you will use amongst your friends or who-ever you feel related to on a similar level (colleagues at work, your brothers and sisters…).
Then there is the third way to say how are you in French that you will hear a lot: (comment) ça va? , translated from French to English as : "it goes"? If you only want to remember one way of saying how are you in French, then remember ça va:
- as you can both use it in formal and informal conversation – be it more informal than formal – and
- it’s a perfect way to say "that all goes well".
However if you want to impress people with your politeness, then repeat what my niece said: comment allez-vous? You can’t go wrong with this way of saying how are you in French. And when the French person feels that you are ‘allowed’ to use the more casual way of saying how are you in French, he will answer your question with comment vas-tu.
How to say how are you in French audio examples
Below some common phrases that you can hear when you greet somebody in French,
illustrated with images from Megavocab Rocket French – the best way to learn over 1000 common French phrases easily:
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How are you in French audio transcript
- Comment allez-vous? How are you? (formal-polite)
- Comment ça va? How are things going with you?
- Bonjour. Goodmorning / Goodday
- Comment ça va? How are things going with you?
- (Pas) très bien. (Not) very well.
- Et vous? And you? (formal-polite)
- Et toi? Comment vas-tu? And you? How are you (in a more casual French way)
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