Nice to Meet You in French: 11 options, explained

Meeting new people can be an exciting chance to make friends and practice your French, but you’ll want to master the social basics if you want to leave a good impression when you meet someone for the first time. Knowing a few different ways to say nice to meet you in French will surely come in handy alongside the other basics like the casual ça va ? or some of the other French greetings.

You’ll need to know how to say nice to meet you in French anytime you meet someone new, whether it’s a new colleague or making a friend in a social situation – and just like in English, there are many different ways to say it.

In this post, we’ll explore all the different ways to say nice to meet you in French with differing degrees of formality. The first is the most informal, while the next ones each have two versions depending on who you’re addressing. Now let’s get started!

Enchanté(e)

Nice to meet you

Simply saying enchanté is probably the most straightforward way to say nice to meet you in French, and rightly so: it’s by far the most commonly used. It can be used in both formal and informal situations, making it the perfect word to keep in your back pocket for new encounters.

Native English speakers sometimes worry that enchanté may sound a bit stilted or unusual because of its close similarity to the English word enchanted, which is used in a very different context. However, far from conjuring up associations of fairytales and spells, enchanté in French translates much more closely to delighted, so it sounds just as natural as saying I’m pleased to meet you in French.

Because enchanté is an adjective, it needs to agree with the person describing themselves, and takes an additional “e” in the feminine form. Therefore, while a man would say enchanté when meeting someone new, a woman would use enchantée. Luckily, these sound exactly the same in spoken French, so you’d only be able to spot the difference if you saw the phrase written down – just like here!

This is one of the most popular ways to say nice to meet you in French, so don’t be afraid to turn to this one over and over again!

• Bonjour Marie, enchanté. / Enchantée. – Hello Marie, nice to meet you. / Nice to meet you.

Ravi(e) de vous rencontrer, Ravi(e) de te rencontrer

Pleased to meet you

Simple and direct, ravi de vous rencontrer may not be the most casual way to say nice to meet you in French, but it’s one of the safest. It’s fairly formal (although not as formal as some of the expressions we’ll take a look at later in our list), making it a perfect option for when you’re not entirely sure how formal the social situation is. If you want to err on the side of caution, such as when you’re meeting a new colleague, you can’t go wrong with using ravi de vous rencontrer.

On the other hand, ravi de te rencontrer is more casual simply by virtue of its informal you form. By swapping the direct object pronoun “vous” for “te,” we instantly make the expression much more relaxed. You can use ravi de te rencontrer when you’re meeting people your own age or in relaxed social settings such as parties.

For a refresher on when to use the different forms of you in French, check out our dedicated blog post on tu vs vous. You can generally use both of them in many of our expressions for nice to meet you in French, so it’s worth taking the time now to help you choose which expression to use!

Just like with enchanté(e), there’s an optional ‘e’ at the end of ravi(e) whose use will depend on whether the speaker is a man or a woman. Again, although a man is ravi and a woman is ravie, they sound exactly the same so it’s easy to remember!

• Ravi de vous rencontrer! / Et vous! – Pleased to meet you! / And you!

• Salut, ravie de te rencontrer. / Salut, et toi! – Hi, pleased to meet you. / Hey, you too!

C’est un plaisir de vous rencontrer, C’est un plaisir de te rencontrer

It’s a pleasure to meet you

This way of saying nice to meet you in French is slightly different from the others. It translates best to it’s a pleasure to meet you, and implies that you’ve been looking forward to meeting them. Because of that, it’s best used in situations where it would make sense that you’ve heard a little bit about the person before you’ve met them. For example, it would be appropriate to use c’est un plaisir de vous rencontrer when meeting someone that you’ve been told will be joining your team at work.

As we saw above, the “vous” in this expression makes it fit for formal encounters. To make it more informal, you could instead say c’est un plaisir de te rencontrer. This would work better for situations where the other person is of similar age and seniority to you where it’s expected that there’ll be a degree of familiarity soon, such as meeting your friend’s partner that you’ve heard a lot about.

• C’est un plaisir de vous rencontrer. / Le plaisir est pour moi! – It’s a pleasure to meet you. / The pleasure is all mine!

• Bonjour, je m’appelle Jean. C’est un plaisir de te rencontrer. / Salut Jean, c’est aussi un plaisir de te rencontrer. – Hello, I’m Jean. It’s a pleasure to meet you. / Hi Jean, it’s a pleasure to meet you too.

Ravi(e) de faire votre connaissance, Ravi(e) de faire ta connaissance

Pleased to make your acquaintance

This is a much more formal way to say nice to meet you in French than the examples we’ve explored above. Although the phrase pleased to make your acquaintance is rarely said in English, its French counterpart, ravi de faire votre connaissance, is much more common. That said, it’s still reserved for formal occasions and to connote respect, such as meeting somebody you admire or who’s in a position of seniority.

It’s certainly possible to use ravi(e) de faire ta connaissance as the more informal version of this phrase. However, even when using the “tu” form of the informal possessive adjective, “ta,” this is still considered quite a polite way to say nice to meet you in French. On the whole, it’s probably best to reserve this phrase for formal situations where you want to show off your manners, and not, say, meeting someone at a bar!

The big exception to that rule of thumb is when you’re speaking to multiple people at the same time. If you’re introducing yourself to a group, whether it’s a new social circle at an informal hangout or greeting an audience at a seminar you’re delivering, ravi de faire votre connaissance is usually the expression you’ll use the most. We use the plural “vous” regardless of formality, as it translates more closely as pleased to meet you all. If you’re saying nice to meet you in French to more than one person, this is your best option!

Just as we saw above, don’t forget to add the “e” when the speaker is a woman, so the phrase becomes ravie de faire votre connaissance or ravie de faire ta connaissance.

• Bonjour, bienvenue dans mon cours. Ravi de faire votre connaissance. – Hello, welcome to my class. Pleased to meet you all.

• Bonjour, ravie de faire votre connaissance. – Good morning, pleased to make your acquaintance.

C’est un plaisir de faire votre connaissance, C’est un plaisir de faire ta connaissance

It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance

Just like ravi de faire votre connaissance, this is one of the most formal ways you can say nice to meet you in French. Save it for those situations that really call for it, like meeting dignitaries or other people in positions that command respect.

Again, you can say c’est un plaisir de faire ta connaissance to dress this greeting down, but it still remains somewhat formal. It’s a good expression to bear in mind for those informal social situations where you still want to be sure that you come across as polite and respectful.

• Bonsoir, c’est un plaisir de faire votre connaissance. – Good evening, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

C’était un plaisir de vous rencontrer, C’était un plaisir de te rencontrer

It was nice meeting you

We’ll wrap up our list of ways to say nice to meet you in French with c’était un plaisir de vous rencontrer. This expression is the perfect way to end a conversation with someone you just met.

Meaning it was nice meeting you, this phrase is used in the past tense to politely finish a conversation with a stranger, just as you would in English. Of course, this is also available in a “tu” version as c’était un plaisir de te rencontrer.

If you really want to show off your French social skills, this is also an opportunity to follow up with one of the many ways to say goodbye in French!

• C’était un plaisir de te rencontrer! Au revoir! / À bientôt! – It was nice meeting you! See you soon! / See you around!

• Alors, je dois y aller. C’était un plaisir de vous rencontrer. – Well, I’ve got to go. It was nice meeting you.

Conclusion: Nice to meet you in French

There you have it! You now know many different ways to say nice to meet you in French. No matter what social situation you find yourself in, you’ll now be able to choose exactly the right phrase to reflect the formality of the setting and show off your growing fluency.

We’ll leave you with our list of how to say nice to meet you in French that you can come back to for easy reference. As we say, c’était un plaisir de vous rencontrer !

Enchanté(e)	Nice to meet you
Ravi(e) de te/vous rencontrer	Pleased to meet you
C’est un plaisir de te/vous rencontrer	It’s a pleasure to meet you
Ravi(e) de faire ta/votre connaissance	Pleased to make your acquainance
C’est un plaisir de faire ta/votre connaissance	It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance
C’était un plaisir de te/vous rencontrer	It was nice meeting you