French for Beginner #1

As you might be aware of, I am currently learning French. For me, French is a very beautiful language, and I have always wanted to be able to be fluent of it. French is one of a Romance language: languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome, hence the name "Romance". I think it's safe to say that it is indeed a very romantic language.

For a couple of weeks, I will be posting some posts about French phrases for beginners. Nothing fancy for this series of posts though, just common phrases that you might need if you are traveling to French speaking countries or if you just want to impress someone. Believe me, I have impressed a lot of people myself by just saying "hello" in French.

So, in this French for Beginner #1, we are only going to learn how to say 3 very simple phrases in French: "hello", "goodbye", and "thank you". However, as French expressions can be in form of formal and informal expressions, there might be 2 sets of each expression.

1. Hello
Formal: Bonjour! for morning until afternoon (literally: good day) or Bonsoir! for evening (literally: good evening)
Informal: Salut!

2. Goodbye
Formal: Au revoir.
Informal: Salut!

3. Thank you (very much)
Merci (beaucoup).