Salutations et au revoir

Although we would normally say 'greetings' rather than salutations. salutation is an English word, in fact I have had a beer or two in a pub called The Salutation in Manchester. As we have seen, because salutation is a word that ends in ion then it is almost certainly a French word, and this is no exception. The short version is salut and it can be a salute but it usually means 'hi' or 'bye'

You may well know bonjour and bonsoir and even bon après-midi, but you may not know quoi de neuf what's new or pas grand chose, not a lot. In many classes the first words are bonjour la classe and in most classes the pupils reply to the register with oui madame or oui monsieur. You could also hear the reply salut. In my experience the French do not usually say bonjour without adding monsieur, madame. the first name if it is known or even la classe.

A tout à l'heure means see you later but is usually said if you are going to see that person on the same day. It is interesting to note that 'toodleloo' means something similar in English and you can see how the French has been corrupted. You could say à la prochaine, if you are going to see someone again but not on that day. You could even say...

A bientôt