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French · phrasebook

How to say welcome in French

Welcome in French is bienvenue. It greets someone who has arrived a moment ago: a friend at your door, a visitor at a reception desk. It works with tu and with vous because it contains neither.

Aurélien CuvelierAurélien CuvelierSep 19, 2026
bienvenue
welcome
anyone

The ways to say it

bienvenue: welcome, anyone

How to use it

The first exchange below is at home: a friend is let in and welcomed to the house. The second is in an office, where a receptionist says it after hello and a title, then asks about the appointment. The word is the same; the sentence around it carries the register.

Watch out

Bienvenue only greets an arrival. It is never the reply to a thank you: French has other phrases for you're welcome.

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.

Entre, Léa ! Bienvenue chez nous ! Come in, Léa! Welcome to our home!

Merci beaucoup, ta maison est très jolie. Thank you very much, your house is very pretty.

Bonjour madame, bienvenue. Vous avez rendez-vous ? Hello madam, welcome. Do you have an appointment?

Oui, avec le directeur. Merci de votre accueil. Yes, with the director. Thank you for your welcome.

Questions people ask

Is bienvenue the reply to thank you in French?
No. It welcomes someone who arrives. The reply to a thank you is a different phrase.
Can you say bienvenue to a stranger?
Yes. It carries no tu or vous, so it suits a guest, a client or a friend.

More French phrases

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

The whole French phrasebook on one page ›

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Aurélien Cuvelier

Written by

Aurélien Cuvelier Founder, NuanceDeck

Aurélien Cuvelier builds NuanceDeck, the app that teaches Russian and French words in context. Each course follows the official proficiency word lists and a frequency corpus for its language, and every word comes with real, annotated example sentences.

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