Learning French - II - Bon Jour, Merci Beaucoup, Au revoir

To begin with, there are three basic set of words which you will always come across while in France.These are not very alien and you must have come across them some where.

1) Bon Jour -  Good day.

    In France, no matter where you go, who you meet, a known person or a stranger, some times even a passer by on the road you are walking, you will encounter these words coming towards you. French people are very polite and they will always wish you a good day when you meet them for the first time in a day.

Bon Jour  is  kind of equivlent to Good Morning in English

2) Merci, Beaucoup:  Thank you, Very much

     You will start wondering while in France, how many times you hear these words. If you just want to say Thank you, you say Merci, but if you wish to extend more thanks in a sense thank you very much or thanks a lot, you say Merci, Beaucoup. French people are used to use this word a lot. They will thank you even if you allow them to talk to you for a minute.

3) Au revoir -  Good bye

     Its very common to say Au revoir (Good bye) once your meeting with any body, anywhere, any time is finished. Not just to familiar faces, but even to unknown people you deal with, like a shop keeper, you say Au revoir while leaving the shop.

So, three very important words in French

1) Bon Jour

2) Merci, Baucoup

3) Au revoir

Now, I might not be explicitly talking about the pronunciation of words here, so, I will share a simple rule that I learnt.

If a french word ends with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), then the consonant coming just before that vowel is pronounced. For ex. in case of Merci. Here, i is the last character in the word and preceding one c, so, c is pronounced while saying Merci.

But if the last character is a consonant, then it is not pronounced. Ex: Beaucoup. Here, p is not pronounced.

Try to put these words in Google translator. It allows you listen to their pronunciation and also know  their meanings.