How To Say "How Are You?" And "How Are You Doing?" In French

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How to say "How are you?" and "How are you doing?" in French

• Posted by Tinyturtle on July 20, 2012 at 8:07am in French Grammar
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Hi Everyone,

I don't know how to say "How are you" and "How are you doing" in French!

I found this sentence:    Comment allez-vous?

Does it convey the meaning "How are you" or "How are you doing"? 

Please help and thank you in advance!

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Permalink Reply by Cath on July 20, 2012 at 8:14am "How are you ?" can be translated "Comment allez-vous ? / Comment vas-tu ?", whereas "How are you doing / going ?" is less formal and is translated : "Comment ça va ?" or "Ça va, toi / vous".

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Permalink Reply by Christine on July 20, 2012 at 9:25am

I'll add another less formal one, "Tu vas bien?", which, translated, is more like "Are you fine?", but is heard very often (the answer usually is "Oui, et toi?").

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Permalink Reply by swapnal gole on July 26, 2012 at 10:25am

Exactly..!

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Permalink Reply by janet strand on July 24, 2012 at 7:41pm

I lived in France for many years, I married a French man, had a baby in France and after 2 years I began to speak French. A lot of what I learned was slang but I would say "comment ca va? or ca va?. If  you are good friends with someone you just say "ca va"?

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Permalink Reply by marc vicogne on July 27, 2012 at 10:54am

yes you can ,depending where you live you will find sometime that even as a french speaking person you may have problems to be understood this is due to the patois in the area

I come from the north (pas de calais) and the patois is Picard or chtimi

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Permalink Reply by KARIM BEN on July 25, 2012 at 2:47pm

Hi Tinyturtle,

You can express it in a variety of ways. In French, the way we say it depends on the social group you talk to.

 

In working classes, even among youth circles or students and even within the low middle class,

we say: 'ça va?', 'ça roule?', 'quoi de neuf?', 'comment ça va?', 'tu vas bien?', 'la vie est belle?'.

But on tv programmes, in the so-called good society, we would say: 'Comment allez-vous?', 'Est-ce que vous allez bien?',

'Comment vous portez-vous?'.

 

So, we have no exact way to express the British 'how are you doing?'. But you can simply use 'ça va?'. And how are you? : 'comment vous allez/ tu vas?'.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by janet strand on July 25, 2012 at 4:06pm

I agree with somewhat with you Tinyturtle, how to say how are you to  friends "Ca va?",but I'm not sure about the working class as I still have the same respect for them as the high society. So I would treat them the same and use "Comment allez-vous?"

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Permalink Reply by KARIM BEN on July 25, 2012 at 4:20pm

Hi Janet, I have no disrespect to the working classes. But to avoid being misunderstood, I say 'less educated French'. 'ça va'?' wouldn't offend a a factory worker but would surely please him.

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Permalink Reply by Tinyturtle on July 25, 2012 at 6:26pm

Hi Friends,So,  if we meet a person for the first time, I think we should use "Comment allez-vous". We keep thing in a polite wayWhen we get closer, we should use "comment ca va" or "ca va". By this way, people might feel more comfortable and friendly

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Permalink Reply by Jean Grage on July 27, 2012 at 4:55pm

@Tinyturtle Yes that's good :) ! If you're close enough you can use : " comment tu vas ? " too. That's equivalent to comment ça va.

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