When you're speaking French 
or you're in France even visiting, 
you don't want to 
be a clumsy tourist. 
You want to speak well, 
you want to be respectful, 
you want to live like a local. 
So you already very probably 
heard about “Bon appétit” 
in order to wish someone 
to have a good meal. 
But maybe you heard that it 
was not polite to say it, or is it? 
You don't even know anymore. 
And also, what do you answer?
We're going to see all 
that in the lesson today. 
Bonjour, I’m Géraldine, 
your French teacher. 
Welcome to 
Comme Une Française. 
I'm here to help you speak every 
day modern French with confidence. 
C’est parti.
First, let's make sure you know 
how to pronounce “bon appétit”. 
I've heard so many bad 
things, it's frightening. 
We say:
L’appétit is un nom masculin. 
A masculine noun. 
That's why we write “Bon appétit” 
with “bon” at the beginning
“Bon” to say good. 
“Bon” in masculine. 
We don't say “bonne” 
It's not “bonne”, it's “bon” because 
l’appétit is un nom masculin. 
However, why do we say: 
we should say: 
Well, we do la liaision. 
La liaison is when we 
say the ending of a word 
that is linked to the 
beginning of the second one. 
Here we don't say:
That’s la liaison between the end 
of “bon” and the A of “appétit”. 
“Bon appétit” all together. 
There's one last mistake 
that students make, 
it’s saying the T at the end. 
We don't say: 
No, ever. 
Never, ever. 
We say: 
So you can forget 
about the T at the end. 
And that’s it. 
Bon appétit. 
So is it polite or impolite? 
Very recently, students 
have started asking me 
But Géraldine, I heard 
that using “bon appétit"
at the beginning 
of a meal is impolite. 
What do you think?
Well, it's because students told me 
about that, that I started asking myself 
and making some 
research about it. 
And in everyday life I had 
never heard about that. 
And as it happens, it 
seems that at the beginning
"bon appétit” was weird 
because it was talking 
about the bodily function of 
actually eating and digesting 
but it's not the 
case anymore at all. 
You can use it. 
Some fancy people will tell you
it's impolite to say bon appétit, 
just forget about it and wish it. 
It's like wishing good thing,
even if it's a bit wrong it's fine 
because you have good intentions
and it's very good
99.999% of the time.
So say it, have fun 
and say it well. 
Bon appétit. 
Bon appétit, in the rules of 
eating at the table in France, 
it's a signal that the 
meal is going to start. 
We usually don't start 
before we wished it, 
especially if we're in a group. 
You're not going to say it to yourself 
but you wish it to the rest of the group. 
We wish it to the other people
that we see eating as well. 
So for example if you're 
on a hike in the mountains 
or even in the countryside and 
you see people having a picnic 
and you just pass next to them, 
just wish them bon appétit. 
This is what I would 
do in everyday life. 
So you wish “bon appétit”. 
So either people are 
going to say "merci" 
because you're not 
eating and they are 
or if you are with 
someone else eating 
you can wish it again 
“bon appétit”. Ok? 
- Bon appétit.
- Bon appétit.
And you can start eating 
together and that's it. 
It's absolutely fine. 
You don't have to worry about it. 
It's a fantastic wish. 
So go on, say it.
Bon appétit. 
I told you that "bon appétit" is the 
signal that the meal can start. 
Again, it's not a written rule 
but this is more like how 
it happens in everyday life. 
If you’ve been learning 
French for a while, 
you know that table customs 
in France are very important. 
For example we have 
lots of rules about bread, 
about how to eat, 
how to behave, etc. 
What to talk about. 
And I could say that it's more 
habit rather than a rulebook. 
You don't have to stick to it 
or else you will be 
kicked out of the country. 
No. It's more that for us, 
eating is socializing as well. 
So people are not 
going to eat alone 
unless you're alone and there's 
no one else around you. 
But if you're a group, 
you're going to have a meal 
that will be shared together 
and that's very important. 
It's even something that the 
UNESCO recognized a few years ago, 
that it's very French 
to eat together, 
to socialize and 
strengthen social ties. 
So again, if you’re
in France, just enjoy it 
and try to see what's 
happening around you. 
So, have fun, embrace this idea 
that eating is a way to socialize 
with your friends and family 
and you can even go beyond that 
and wish them 
un bon appétit. 
Bon appétit.
So today we learned that you can 
say "bon appétit" by making la liaison 
and not say the T at the end. 
We say bon appétit. 
We saw that it's polite to wish it 
and it's very encouraged to say it 
because it's nice and 
everybody else does it 
and that table customs 
in France are important. 
So if you want to embrace it and
learn more about French culture, 
just go on and enjoy a good meal 
at the table and talk to your neighbors. 
If you want to learn more 
about table customs, 
I made a short playlist for you 
so you should check it out 
and I will see you 
in the next video. 
À tout de suite. 
See you there. 
