Making business phone calls: Scheduling a meeting over the phone

💬 Days of the week are written in lowercase in French unless they start a sentence, as in mercredi "Wednesday".

💬 Prochain comes after the day. The pattern swaps easily: vendredi prochain "next Friday", la semaine prochaine "next week".

💬 Vous here means "to you", so the phrase literally reads "does that go to you?". With a friend, it becomes Ça te va ?.

💬 French often puts the topic first and then asks about it: Jeudi, ça vous va ? "Thursday, does that work?".

💬 To say "not", French wraps the verb with ne before it and pas after it. In casual speech ne often disappears, but keep it in business calls.

💬 Raising your voice at the end turns c'est possible into a question, with no change in word order.

💬 The x in dix becomes a (z) sound before a vowel, so dix heures sounds like (dee-zur). The h is silent.

🇫🇷 Business times are often given on the 24-hour clock, such as quatorze heures "2 p.m.". Expect to hear this on the phone rather than "2 in the afternoon".

💬 Votre is the polite "your" that goes with vous. With a friend you would say ton bureau.

💬 C'est ça is the standard way to confirm a detail. It is much more natural here than a word-for-word version of "that's correct".

🇫🇷 Saying je note while you write signals that the appointment is settled. Repeating the day and time back, as in je note : mercredi, dix heures, is the usual way to confirm it.

🇫🇷 Adding madame or monsieur without a surname is standard politeness in France and doesn't sound stiff. A bare merci can come across as curt on a business call.

🇫🇷 This is the standard way to end a call or shop visit before evening. Later in the day, switch to Bonne soirée ! "Have a nice evening!"

💬 À vous aussi answers a wish like bonne journée "have a good day". With a friend, it becomes à toi aussi.

🇫🇷 Adding monsieur or madame to your goodbye is standard politeness in France, not stiff. A bare au revoir sounds a little curt on a business call.