Phrasebook
Au revoir or à bientôt: choosing a French goodbye
Choose au revoir, à bientôt, à demain or à tout à l’heure. Practise short farewells for an open ending, a planned return and a call that is finishing.
- A1
- 9 phrases
- 4 situations
- Learn this in the A1 notebook →
In short
Au revoir is a general “goodbye”. À bientôt means “see you soon” and leaves the time open. When you know the next meeting time, you can be more specific: À demain ! means “see you tomorrow”.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
Finish a call
The enquiry is complete; there is no next meeting to arrange.
Leave the next meeting open
You would like to talk again soon.
Confirm tomorrow
The next lesson is tomorrow at ten.
Return later today
You are taking a break and coming back at two.
Choose the ending that fits the plan
| French | English | Time reference |
|---|---|---|
| Au revoir ! | Goodbye! | General closing |
| À bientôt ! | See you soon! | Soon, with the time open |
| À demain ! | See you tomorrow! | Tomorrow |
| À lundi ! | See you on Monday! | Monday |
| À tout à l’heure ! | See you later! | Later the same day |
You can combine the first two: Au revoir, et à bientôt ! The first closes the exchange; the second looks towards future contact. À bientôt works when you hope to meet again, even while the exact date is still open.
- Teacher
Merci à tous. On se retrouve lundi.
Thank you, everyone. We’ll meet again on Monday.
- Learner
À lundi, bonne soirée !
See you on Monday, have a good evening!
- Teacher
Bonne soirée !
Have a good evening!
Bonne journée and bonne soirée are wishes: “have a good day” and “have a good evening”. You can add either to au revoir. Neither changes with tu or vous: Au revoir, Paul ! and Au revoir, madame ! use the same farewell.
Au revoir ! À bientôt !
Goodbye! See you soon!
Write au revoir as two words. Keep the grave accent in à and the circumflex in bientôt.