Goodbye in French: Au Revoir and 12 Ways to Say Farewell

“Au revoir” is only the beginning

Picture yourself leaving a Parisian café. You catch the waiter’s eye, want to say goodbye, and the only word that surfaces is a shaky au revoir. It works — but it’s a bit like answering every English farewell with a flat “goodbye.” French has a whole toolkit of ways to part, and the one you pick quietly signals how well you read the room.

The good news is that a handful of expressions will carry you through almost any situation, from a formal meeting to a text message with friends. Below you’ll find the goodbyes that matter, when to use each one, and how to pronounce them without tripping over that famous French R. If you’re building your everyday vocabulary from scratch, our guide on the fastest way to learn French pairs perfectly with what follows.

Au revoir: the goodbye that always works

If you remember only one way to say goodbye in French, make it au revoir. It’s neutral, polite, and appropriate almost everywhere — with a shopkeeper, a colleague, a stranger, or a friend. Literally it means “until we see each other again,” which is a gentler idea than the English “goodbye.”

Because it’s so universal, au revoir never sounds wrong. The only thing to watch is that on its own it can feel a touch abrupt, so French speakers usually tack something warmer onto it — a name, a Monsieur or Madame, or a wish like bonne journée (more on those below). Think of it as the reliable base you decorate with a second phrase.

Casual goodbyes for friends

Among friends, family, and people your own age, au revoir can feel slightly stiff. This is where the relaxed goodbyes come in.

Salut is the Swiss Army knife of casual French: it means both “hi” and “bye,” so you can open and close a conversation with the exact same word. Ciao, borrowed straight from Italian, is extremely common among younger French speakers as a breezy sign-off. And yes, the French genuinely say bye (or bye-bye) too — an English import that sounds light and friendly rather than lazy.

For example: Salut, à demain ! (“Bye, see you tomorrow!”) is exactly how a French friend might end a call. Just keep these three for informal settings — dropping a cheerful ciao to your boss’s boss may raise an eyebrow. If you want more everyday expressions like these, our roundup of essential French phrases is a great next stop.

“See you…” goodbyes for every timeframe

Some of the most useful French farewells tell the other person when you’ll meet again. They all start with à (“until”), and swapping the ending is enough to change the meaning:

• À bientôt — “See you soon” (no fixed date, just soon-ish).
• À tout à l’heure — “See you later today,” when you’ll cross paths again the same day.
• À plus tard, often shortened to à plus — “See you later,” casual and open-ended.
• À demain — “See you tomorrow.”
• À la prochaine — “Until next time,” warm and slightly informal.
• Bon après-midi — “Good afternoon”. You may also hear Bon aprem, a more informal version used with friends and family.
• Bisous — “Kisses.” A warm, affectionate way to say goodbye to friends and family. French speakers use it because ending a conversation with imaginary kisses makes the farewell feel more loving and personal.

Tip: in the shortened à plus, French speakers usually pronounce the final S (“ah plooss”) when it’s a goodbye — dropping it can make it sound like the math word plus. It’s a tiny detail, but getting it right makes you sound noticeably more natural.

The polite parting the French actually use

Here’s something the textbooks often skip: in real life, French people rarely end an exchange with a bare au revoir. They add a good wish, and it’s considered genuinely polite to do so. The two workhorses are bonne journée (“have a good day”) and bonne soirée (“have a good evening”), switching over roughly in the late afternoon.

So a complete, natural goodbye to a baker might be: Au revoir, bonne journée ! You’ll hear this pairing dozens of times a day in France. There’s also bonne nuit (“good night”), but be careful — it’s reserved for when someone is actually going to sleep, not for leaving a party. For the general “have a nice evening,” stick with bonne soirée. Mastering these small courtesies does more for your spoken French than memorizing rare words; you’ll find more of them in our useful French phrases to expand your conversations.

Adieu and goodbyes to use with care

Adieu looks like a natural choice — it’s the word most learners recognize — but in modern French it carries a heavy, almost final weight, closer to “farewell forever.” Save it for dramatic moments or you’ll sound like a character in a nineteenth-century novel. In everyday life, au revoir is what you want.

You may also stumble on à la revoyure, an old-fashioned, playful way to say “see you around.” It’s charming but very informal and dated, so treat it as something to understand rather than to use.

How to pronounce au revoir

The biggest hurdle in au revoir is the R. French uses a guttural R produced at the back of the throat, not the rolling or hard R of English. A useful approximation is roughly “oh ruh-VWAR,” with the throat doing the work on that middle sound. Don’t stress about perfection — even an imperfect R is completely understandable.

For salut, remember the final T is silent: it’s “sah-LU,” not “sah-LUT.” Getting these two right covers the vast majority of your daily goodbyes. If the sounds still feel slippery, our overview of French accents around the world shows just how much pronunciation can vary — and why nobody expects you to sound flawless.

How to respond when someone says goodbye

Goodbyes in French are often a quick back-and-forth, so it helps to know how to answer. The simplest move is to echo what you hear: if someone says au revoir, you can reply au revoir right back. If they wish you bonne journée, the warm, idiomatic response is merci, vous aussi (“thank you, you too”) or the casual toi aussi with friends.

For example: — Au revoir, bonne soirée ! — Merci, vous aussi ! That short exchange is one of the most common you’ll have in France, and handling it smoothly instantly makes conversations feel natural. A goodbye, after all, is just the polite door you leave open for next time.

So, which French farewell are you going to try first — a breezy salut, or the full au revoir, bonne journée? Give one a go next time you finish a conversation, and let us know in the comments how it went!