How to Say You’re Welcome in French

Whenever someone thanks you it’s important to know exactly which form of “you’re welcome” to respond with. If you’re with a friend you will want to respond differently than if you are with your boss, and if you’re in France you may want to respond differently than if you are in Canada. 

In this article, we’re going to go over all of the different ways to say “you’re welcome” in French that you can use depending on the situation you find yourself in.

De rien is probably the most common way of saying “you’re welcome” in French which, when translated literally, means “of nothing”. You can think of it in the same way to how we say “it’s nothing” in English. If you happen to speak Spanish, you’ll have an easy time remembering it because it’s similar to the Spanish phrase de nada.

It should be noted however that de rien is used much more often in French than “it’s nothing” is used in English. Although it’s not something you should use in formal situations you can use it in most informal or casual situations without an issue.

 

Il n’y a pas de quoi is similar to de rien in that it tries to minimize the reason why someone is thanking you in the first place. Translated literally il n’y a pas de quoi gives us something along the lines of “there’s nothing to thank for”. It’s not uncommon however to hear people shorten it a bit and say just y a pas de quoi.

 

This one is another pretty common way to say “you’re welcome” in French and is a little more formal than de rien and il n’y a pas de quoi. This is a great way to say “you’re welcome” in French because although it’s a little more formal than the previous two, it’s also more genuine.
This is something you would use for situations that are a little more serious and require a bit more emotion.

 

If we had to rank this phrase among the other three that we already went over then this one would rank as the most formal. This can be easily seen by the word vous that in French is the formal version of “you”.

The only exception to this is when you are saying “you’re welcome” to more than one person because vous is used when speaking to multiple people regardless of whether or not the situation is formal.

Je vous en prie is a great way to say “you’re welcome” in French because for the most part you never have to worry about whether or not you’re being formal enough or not taking the situation as seriously as you should. It’s better to be too formal than not formal enough.

Most of us are aware that countries often have different vocabulary for certain words, but for this one we aren’t going to even leave France.

Avec plaisir is comparable to de rien, but is used most often in the South of France. Translated literally as “with pleasure” it’s perfect to use when you not only want to say “you’re welcome” to someone, but also that you are happy to have done whatever you did to make them thank you.

If you want a better English translation for this one than just “you’re welcome” then I’d suggest “my pleasure”. Just don’t get the two mixed up and start saying mon plaisir as this is incorrect.

 

This is another rather formal way to express “you’re welcome”. When translated literally we get, “it’s me who thanks you”.

This is best used in situations when the person saying “you’re welcome” really feels that they should be the one saying “thank you”. An example of this would be in a store or some place of business. If, for whatever reason, the situation is more casual you can simply say “c’est moi” with the rest of the sentence (…qui vous remercie) just being understood.

 

This is one that you have to be a little bit careful with as it’s really only used in Belgium. It’s still a good idea to know it however as you never know when you may hear it in conversation.

Although in France and other French-Speaking countries s’il vous plaît is used to mean “please” and ONLY “please”, in Belgium it can also be used to say “you’re welcome”.

 

This is another one that you have to be careful with because it’s only used in French-speaking Canada. Most people are familiar with the word bienvenue as a way to say “welcome” such as in the sentence..

Bienvenue au Canada – Welcome to Canada

And while in most situations it does mean “welcome” in Canada it can also mean “you’re welcome”. However be careful not to say tu es bienvenue (literally you are welcome) like we do in English as the correct way is just bienvenue.

Ça me fait plaisir is another one that you’ll hear often in Canada. Although it’s pretty common to hear ça me fait plaisir anywhere in the French-speaking world you’ll also hear it used to mean “you’re welcome” in Canada.

You’ll also hear it shortened to just ça fait plaisir. Just think of it like the Canadian version or avec plaisir.

 

Without going into too much detail on each one there are actually other ways to say “you’re welcome” in Canadian French. It should be noted that these are all informal and shouldn’t be used in formal or serious situations.

Pas de trouble (pas d’trouble) – No worries

C’est ben correct – It’s all good

Il y’a rien là (y’a rien là) – It’s nothing

 

Sticking with uncommon ways to say “you’re welcome” in French this one is what you’ll hear in Switzerland.

Although it may seem weird to just say “service” it’s actually short for à votre / à ton service (at your service) which makes a lot more sense when you think about it.

 

Most likely inspired from the English phrase “no problem”, pas de problème is a quick and easy way to say “you’re welcome” in informal situations. Something else you can say that’s in a way related is ne t’inquiète pas, (often shortened to t’inquiète pas or just t’inquiète) which means “don’t worry” as in “Don’t worry about it”.

As you speak with native-French speakers some of them may thank you for things and hopefully with this guide you’ll have at least one way to properly say “you’re welcome”.

Take the time to learn the ones here and perhaps others you find on your own. It’s always good to be prepared for every type of situation!