12 Polite and Not So Polite Ways to Say “You’re Welcome” in French

Someone says merci and you have about a second to answer. Here's the short version: je vous en prie is the safe, polite choice that works everywhere, je t'en prie is its friendly twin for people you say tu to, and de rien is the casual reply you'll hear most often in France.

They're not interchangeable, though. Each “you're welcome” in French has its own connotation, and a few of them only exist in Belgium, Switzerland, or Québec. Here's which one to use where, how each one sounds, and the one to fall back on when you're not sure.

When someone thanks you, you only have a few seconds to answer with the appropriate “You’re welcome”.

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“You’re welcome” in French at a glance

Je vous en prie: The formal “You are welcome”

Je vous en prie is a formal way to say “You’re welcome” in French, as shown by the use of vous (the formal French “you”).

The construction itself is a bit old-fashioned. It literally means “I pray you,” (I beg you), which is something you’d hear in the Middle Ages. 

All right, old-fashioned phrases definitely exist in different languages, but why, you might be wondering, is something that means “I beg you” a way to say “You’re welcome”?

In fact, we’ll rediscover this phenomenon in some of the other ways to say “You’re welcome” on this list. German speakers might recognize it too, since in German, “You’re welcome” is the same word used for “please” (Bitte). The idea is that the person saying “You’re welcome” is asking permission, after the fact, to do the thing they’re being thanked for.

Think about that with this example:

Vous pouvez finir le gâteau si vous voulez.

Merci, c’est gentil.

Je vous en prie.

But you don’t have to overthink it. Certainly, most French people don’t. Je vous en prie is just a normal way to say “you’re welcome”. 

Considered more polite than De rien, without being overly formal, Je vous en prie is a great choice for professional situations and anytime you’re in doubt about how formal you need to be.

If you had to learn only one “You’re welcome”, Je vous en prie would be the best choice.

Je t’en prie: The slightly formal “you’re welcome”

Je t’en prie is a common yet strange way to say “You’re welcome” in French. It combines tu (the informal French “you”) with a rather formal verb and construction.

The result is a “You’re welcome” that you can use with people you’re on a “tu” basis with whenever you want to sound slightly formal and classy.

Due to its more formal construction, Je t’en prie is often considered more serious than De rien and is a better choice when someone thanks you for something important.

De rien: The relaxed you’re welcome

Similar to the Spanish De nada, or the English “It’s nothing”/”Don’t worry about it”, De rien literally means “Of nothing” and is the most common “You’re welcome” in France.

You can use it as a way to say “You’re welcome” when someone spontaneously thanks you for something unimportant.

Beware though: De rien is fairly informal and shouldn’t be used in professional or extremely formal situations.

You’ll hear de rien constantly in the everyday conversations you copy in the Copycat Cafe app, at both slow and natural speed.

Il n’y a pas de quoi

Il n’y a pas de quoi is an informal way of saying “You’re welcome” in French.

You’ll also commonly see and hear it shortened as’y a pas de quoi. As you might have guessed, this shortened version is even more informal and mostly used with people you know or are in a relaxed, non-professional situation with. 

Il n’y a pas de quoi and ‘y a pas de quoi basically mean “There’s nothing to thank for” or “It’s nothing”.

Pas de problème: The slang “You’re welcome”

Pas de problème was probably inspired by the English “No problem”. You can use it as an informal way of saying “No worries”.

Some people consider it to be slang, though, so make sure you only use it in informal situations.

The complicated “You’re welcome”

If you thank a seller in a shop, you may hear C’est moi qui vous remercie in response. This literally means “It is I who thanks you”.  It’s the equivalent of the English “No, thank you”.

You can use this expression if someone thanks you while you think you should be the one thanking them.

The shortened form, C’est moi (“It’s me”) is actually more common although less formal. 

“You’re welcome” in other parts of the Francophone world

Those are the versions of “You’re welcome” you’ll most often hear in France. But what about the rest of the Francophone world?  

While some Francophone countries, regions, or cultures follow the same “You’re welcome” rules, a few stand out.  

This being said, don’t panic – if you use one of the versions of “You’re welcome” that we’ve just covered, people will understand what you mean, regardless of where they come from. But if you want to say “You’re welcome” like a local, here are a few specific ones to keep in mind.

Avec plaisir: The southern French “You’re welcome”

As a French learner, you may be tempted to literally translate the “You’re welcome” response “My pleasure” into Mon plaisir.

While lots of French expressions are similar to English expressions, this isn’t the case here. Mon plaisir isn’t something the French would use to say “You’re welcome”.

Instead, use Avec plaisir (literally: “With pleasure”) whenever you want to tell someone you were happy to do what you did. For example, if a friend thanks you for helping him move.

That being said, Avec plaisir is one of many French expressions that’s not used the same way everywhere in France. You’re much more likely to hear it used as an equivalent of De rien in the south of France.

The French Canadian “You’re welcome”

In France, Bienvenue  means “Welcome”, as in “Welcome to France” or “Welcome to Paris”.

However, in Québécois French, Bienvenue is also used to say “You’re welcome” . It’s used the same way as De rien.

The Belgian “you’re welcome”

The first time I took the Thalys train to Amsterdam, I was confused to hear the Belgian waiter answer S’il vous plaît after I said “Merci”.

Why would he answer “Please” after I said “Thank you”?

I later found out that while s’il vous plait only means “please” in France, it means both “please” and “You’re welcome” in Belgium!

The reasoning behind using a phrase that essentially means “please”, as a way to say thank you, is the same as the reasoning behind the French “You’re welcome” expressions Je vous en prie/Je t’en prie. Essentially, you’re sort of asking permission after the fact for doing the thing that the person is thanking you for. 

Of course, nowadays, as with Je vous en prie/Je t’en prie, French/Belgian people don’t reason with the expression this way, and just use it the way we’d say “You’re welcome” or “My pleasure.”

The Swiss French “You’re welcome”

The most common way to say “You’re welcome” in Swiss French is a single word: Service.

As you can probably guess, this comes from the expression À votre service (At your service). 

While the full expression exists everywhere in French, just saying Service won’t be understood as a way to say “You’re welcome” outside of Switzerland.

Again, remember that although different French-speaking regions and cultures have their specific expressions and ways of doing things, Francophones also understand standard French. So if you feel lost, don’t be afraid to use one of the standard French ways to say “You’re welcome.” After all, it’s better to be polite but sound like a “foreigner” than not to say anything at all!

How do you respond to “merci” in French?

Respond with je vous en prie in formal situations: with strangers, at work, and with anyone you address as vous. With friends and family, je t'en prie or de rien are the natural replies, and avec plaisir tells someone it was a pleasure. In a shop, the classic exchange is the customer's merci answered by the seller's c'est moi qui vous remercie, often shortened to c'est moi. If you only memorize one reply, make it je vous en prie: it works everywhere, with everyone.

Does “you're welcome” change if you're talking to a man or a woman?

No. None of these phrases change with the gender of the person you're talking to. De rien and je vous en prie are the same whether you say them to a man or a woman. What does change the phrase is formality: use the vous form (je vous en prie) with strangers, older people, and at work, and the tu form (je t'en prie) with friends, family, and children.

Do the French always say “You’re welcome”?

There’s a common stereotype of French people being rude. There are a few explanations for this, including French people generally not being overtly emotional, being intimidated by talking to English-speakers (even if they might speak excellent English), and not liking living in Paris (“Parisians” are considered rude even by the French themselves). 

But in reality, speaking politely is a big part of French culture. It would be shocking for a person to walk into a boulangerie and not greet the boulanger/boulangère, not to mention give a friendly general nod or hello to the other customers.  In France, you always greet a shopkeeper, never call your waiter over by yelling Garçon!, and usually address strangers as madame, monsieur, or mademoiselleif you need to get their attention (for example, to tell them they’ve dropped something). 

And so, needing to say “You’re welcome” in whatever format that’s appropriate for the situation, is pretty much a “must”. 

Over to you

As you can see, there are lots of ways to say “you’re welcome” in French. It can seem intimidating and confusing.

The best tip I can give you is to choose Je vous en prie if you aren’t sure. You may sound overly formal, but you’ll never run the risk of offending the person who just thanked you.

Do you have a favorite way to say “You’re welcome” in French? Share it in the comments section below! 

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Polite phrases like de rien and je vous en prie sound effortless when a French person says them. They can sound that natural coming from you, too. Copycat Cafe scores your pronunciation on every phrase. Try it free for 7 days.