How to Say Welcome in French

You've just picked up a French friend from the airport, or you're opening your own front door to guests for the first time, and you reach for a word to greet them with. "You're welcome" comes to mind first — except that's the reply to merci (thank you), not a greeting at all, and reaching for it here would leave everyone in the room confused. The actual word for welcoming someone — into your home, your city, or your company — is a different word entirely, and it comes with a small grammar rule that decides which form you need.

This mix-up trips up learners more than almost any other translation gap, because English uses "welcome" for two completely unrelated jobs — greeting an arriving guest, and replying to thanks — while French keeps the two apart with two different expressions. Once you know which is which, and how the greeting version changes shape depending on who you're talking to, you'll be ready for the exact moment it matters most: someone walking through your door, landing in your city, or joining your team.

Bienvenue: The Word You'll Reach for Most

Bienvenue (byahn-vuh-noo) means simply "welcome," and it's the word you'll hear and use constantly — on its own, as a friendly exclamation, or tacked onto a place, a home, or a group. Said by itself, it never changes form, no matter who you're welcoming or how many of them there are.

Key Phrases

• Bienvenue ! (byahn-vuh-noo) — Welcome!
• Bienvenue à Paris. (byahn-vuh-noo ah pa-ree) — Welcome to Paris.
• Bienvenue chez moi. (byahn-vuh-noo shay mwa) — Welcome to my place.
• Bienvenue dans notre équipe. (byahn-vuh-noo dahn noh-truh ay-keep) — Welcome to our team.

[AUDIO: bienvenue] [AUDIO: bienvenue chez moi]

Grammar Note

Used this way, bienvenue is acting like an interjection — and, historically, a frozen feminine noun — rather than a descriptive adjective, which is exactly why it never changes for gender or number here.

• Common mistake: assuming bienvenue always needs to match the person you're welcoming. On its own, it doesn't — save the agreement for the fuller phrase in the next section.
• Bienvenue à/en/au + place follows the same preposition rules as every other place name in French: bienvenue en France, bienvenue au Canada, bienvenue à Lyon.

Soyez le Bienvenu: The Fuller, Warmer Version

For a warmer, more personal welcome — the kind you'd say looking someone in the eye at your front door — French reaches for soyez le/la bienvenu(e), literally "be the welcomed one." Here, bienvenu switches roles: it's now an adjective, and adjectives in French agree with whoever they describe.

Key Phrases

• Soyez le bienvenu. (swa-yay luh byahn-vuh-noo) — Welcome (formal/plural "you," to a man)
• Soyez la bienvenue. (swa-yay lah byahn-vuh-noo) — Welcome (formal/plural "you," to a woman)
• Soyez les bienvenus. (swa-yay lay byahn-vuh-noo) — Welcome (formal, to a group)
• Sois le bienvenu. (swa luh byahn-vuh-noo) — Welcome (informal "tu," to a man)
• Sois la bienvenue. (swa lah byahn-vuh-noo) — Welcome (informal "tu," to a woman)

[AUDIO: soyez le bienvenu] [AUDIO: soyez la bienvenue]

Grammar Note

Bienvenu here behaves exactly like any other French adjective ending in a consonant plus a silent -e for the feminine — think content/contente.

• Use sois with someone you'd call tu, soyez with someone you'd call vous (or with more than one person).
• Add an -e for a woman: le bienvenu becomes la bienvenue.
• Add an -s for a group of men or a mixed group: les bienvenus.
• Add -es for a group made up only of women: les bienvenues.
• Common mistake: defaulting to bienvenue for everyone because it "looks feminine." The final -e only belongs there when you're welcoming a woman or a group of only women.

Where Bienvenue Actually Shows Up

You'll spot bienvenue everywhere once you start looking: airport arrival signs, welcome mats, tourism office banners, and the first line of almost every company newsletter or new-hire email. Bienvenue chez Air France, bienvenue sur notre site, bienvenue parmi nous (welcome among us) — all lean on the same invariable form from the first section.

Walk up to a French front door and the doormat may well say Bienvenue, but the host greeting you rarely says the word out loud. In practice, French speakers welcome you home far more often with Entrez, entrez ! (Come in, come in!) or Faites comme chez vous (Make yourself at home) than with a bare bienvenue — the printed word is everywhere, but the spoken greeting usually reaches for something more specific to the moment.

Key Phrases

• Entrez, entrez ! (ahn-tray, ahn-tray) — Come in, come in!
• Faites comme chez vous. (fet kum shay voo) — Make yourself at home. (formal/plural)
• Fais comme chez toi. (feh kum shay twa) — Make yourself at home. (informal)

[AUDIO: entrez, entrez] [AUDIO: faites comme chez vous]

Putting It Into Practice: Welcoming Someone at Your Door

Picture your French friend Camille finally arriving at your apartment after a long flight. You open the door, and here's the exchange that actually happens:

• You: "Bienvenue, Camille ! Entrez, entrez !" (Welcome, Camille! Come in, come in!)
• Camille: "Merci, c'est tellement joli chez toi !" (Thanks, it's so lovely at your place!)
• You: "Fais comme chez toi." (Make yourself at home.)

If you're welcoming a room full of guests instead — at a wedding, a conference, or a company event — the register shifts up to match: "Mesdames et messieurs, soyez les bienvenus" (Ladies and gentlemen, welcome), agreement and all, exactly the way you'd expect from the rule in the second section.

Practice Exercises

• Fill in the blank: You're formally welcoming a female colleague. "Soyez ___ bienvenue."
• Fill in the blank: Your company's homepage banner reads, "___ chez Passage !" — the version that never changes form.
• Translate into French, informally, welcoming one man: "Welcome!"
• Multiple choice: Which of these is actually the reply to merci, not a greeting? (a) Bienvenue (b) De rien (c) Soyez les bienvenus
• True or false: Bienvenue on its own agrees in gender and number with the person being welcomed.
• Translate into French, formally, welcoming a group of only women: "Welcome!"

Answer Key

• la — Soyez la bienvenue, agreeing with the woman being welcomed.
• Bienvenue — invariable when it's used as a standalone greeting.
• Sois le bienvenu !
• (b) De rien — the actual reply to thanks; bienvenue and soyez les bienvenus are both greetings, not thanks replies.
• False — bienvenue alone never changes form; only soyez/sois le/la bienvenu(e) takes agreement.
• Soyez les bienvenues !

A Warm Word, Correctly Aimed

• Bienvenue on its own never changes form and covers almost every everyday welcome — a sign, a greeting, a company email.
• Soyez/sois le/la bienvenu(e) adds real warmth and takes agreement, exactly like any other French adjective: bienvenu, bienvenue, bienvenus, bienvenues.
• Don't reach for either one to reply to merci — de rien and je t'en prie are the actual replies to thanks, a completely separate phrase family.

Next time you're expecting someone — at your door, your inbox, or your team's first meeting — you'll have the right welcome ready, agreement and all. Head over to Passage's Vocabulary section for more everyday phrases like this one, or Grammar to see the same adjective-agreement rule at work across the rest of French.