Bonjour
Executive summary
Bonjour is the standard French greeting literally meaning "good day" (from bon "good" + jour "day") and is commonly used to say "hello," "good morning," or "good afternoon" in French-speaking contexts bonjour" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">[1] [2] [3]. Its use spans formal and everyday interactions until the evening, when speakers typically switch to bonsoir ("good evening"), though precise cutoff times vary by context and season [4] [5].
1. What the word means and where it comes from
Bonjour literally combines bon ("good") and jour ("day"), a composition that linguists trace to Old French and Latin roots—bon from Latin bonus and jour from Latin diurnus/diurnum—giving the literal "good day" etymology widely reported in etymological references [2] [6].
2. How it functions in everyday speech
In practice, bonjour operates as the go-to greeting for saying "hello," "good morning," or "good afternoon," and is suitable in both formal and informal exchanges such as entering a shop, meeting colleagues, or opening correspondence, according to language guides and dictionaries [7] [8] [9].
3. Timing and the bonjour/bonsoir switch
Speakers generally use bonjour from dawn until the evening and then switch to bonsoir once it becomes evening; however, the exact hour is flexible—seasonal daylight and social context influence whether people continue to say bonjour into later hours, and some style guides suggest around sunset or after 5–7 p.m. as a practical transition [4] [5] [7].
4. Register, alternatives, and related expressions
Bonjour is neutral-to-formal and remains polite for most encounters, while salut serves as the casual "hi" among friends, rebonjour can be used humorously for "hello again," and other set phrases (bonne journée, bonsoir) cover parting and evening greetings; dictionaries and language sites outline these variations and their social uses [10] [11] [12].
5. How dictionaries and reference works present it
Major dictionaries present consistent definitions: Merriam‑Webster and Dictionary.com render bonjour as "good day" or "good morning" [1] [10], Cambridge lists translations including "hello" and "good afternoon" [8], Collins frames it as an expression of greeting used on meeting someone or starting a call [13], and Wiktionary records both interjection and verb senses tied to greeting with the word [11].
6. Cultural notes, etiquette, and limitations of the reporting
Language-learning resources stress that while bonjour is nearly universal in French-speaking public life, cultural etiquette—making eye contact, adding madame/monsieur in formal contexts, and choosing bonsoir for evenings—matters in social perception, and while the supplied sources document usage, they do not quantify regional variation, frequency data, or prosodic/pronunciation details beyond textbook guidance [7] [12]; those gaps remain outside the scope of the cited reporting.