Ten Expressions To Ask How Things Are and Reply in French

Listen to ten ways to ask someone how they are and a selection of responses in French.

Watch the video as many times as you need, until you feel you can give the French translations as we go!

Now we can see what we’ve learned. Look at the English and see if you can provide the French for these expressions:

Part 1:

How’s things?	Show Ça va?
How’s it going?	Show Comment ça va?
How are you?	Show Comment allez-vous?
Fine, thank you.	Show Ça va bien, merci.
And you?	Show Et vous?

Part 2:

Very good, thanks.	Show Très bien, merci.
So so.	Show Comme ci comme ça.
Not so good.	Show Pas très bien.
It’s not going well.	Show Ça ne va pas.
Things are going badly.	Show Ça va mal.

Notes on Usage

Formal and informal expressions in French

French has two ways of saying ‘you.’ These are vous and tu. In these expressions, we have used vous, which is the form used in formal settings. It is best to start by learning the formal expressions, and then pick up the informal versions later.

You’ll also notice in this list we have included three ways of asking how someone is. The most formal, and the one that is best to use until you are really familiar with someone is Comment allez-vous?

More Lessons

---