What is the difference between à bientôt and à tout à l'heure?

À bientôt is see you soon, with no date. À tout à l'heure is see you later, and it means the same day.

French · phrasebook

How to say see you soon in French

See you soon in French is à bientôt. It expects another meeting without fixing a date. French gets more precise when it can: à tout à l'heure means later today, and à demain means tomorrow.

Aurélien CuvelierSep 19, 2026

à bientôt

see you soon

anyone

The ways to say it

à bientôt

see you soon

anyone

à tout à l'heure

see you later (the same day)

anyone

à demain

see you tomorrow

anyone

How to use it

The first two exchanges below use à bientôt, once with tu and once with a title and vous; the phrase does not change. The third is an invitation to dinner tonight, and the guest answers à tout à l'heure, because the next meeting is a few hours away.

All of them are built the same way: a small word meaning until, then the moment. Once you see the pattern you can read the others on sight.

Watch out

À tout à l'heure carries a liaison between its second and third words, tied in the example, and the letter that opens its last word is silent.

In a real conversation

Each exchange is a line and its reply. Greyed letters are written and not pronounced. A tie marks a liaison, with the sound you hear under it. A label under a verb names its tense when it is not the present.

see you soon

Je rentre chez moi. À bientôt, Marie !I'm going home. See you soon, Marie!À bientôt ! Appelle-moi quand tu arriveras.See you soon! Call me when you get there.

see you soon

Merci beaucoup, madame. Bonne journée et à bientôt !Thank you very much, madam. Have a good day and see you soon!À bientôt, monsieur ! Revenez quand vous voulez.See you soon, sir! Come back whenever you want.

see you later (the same day)

Tu viens dîner chez nous ce soir ?Are you coming to dinner at our place tonight?Oui, avec plaisir, à tout à l'heure !Yes, gladly, see you later!

Questions people ask

What is the difference between à bientôt and à tout à l'heure?: À bientôt is see you soon, with no date. À tout à l'heure is see you later, and it means the same day.
How do you say see you tomorrow in French?: À demain.

More French phrases

Each one with its tu and vous forms, its register and real exchanges.

The whole French phrasebook on one page ›

Learn the words behind the phrases

The French course is on its way. Leave your email and get one message when it opens.

Written by

Aurélien Cuvelier Founder, NuanceDeck

Aurélien Cuvelier builds NuanceDeck: the app, and the verification pipeline behind its dictionary. Every entry is grounded in the official TORFL lexical minimum and a 20,000-word frequency corpus, and every example sentence passes a certification review before it ships.

More about how NuanceDeck is made ›