Meeting old friends: Friend is married with a child

🇫🇷 [Salut !] is casual. It's perfect with friends, but not what you'd normally open with in a more formal situation.

💬 [Ça fait] is a common way to talk about how long something has been going on: [Ça fait deux ans] = "It's been two years." In [Ça fait si longtemps !], it means "It's been such a long time!" not "it makes."

💬 [Si] here means "so," not "if": [si longtemps] = "so long." You can reuse it the same way in [si bon] ("so good") or [si gentil] ("so kind").

💬 [Ça fait + length of time] is a very common pattern: [Ça fait longtemps], [Ça fait deux mois], [Ça fait dix minutes]. Here it expresses how long it has been since you saw someone.

💬 With [tu], French often flips the verb and subject in questions: [vas-tu ?] = "are you?" Compare [as-tu ?] ("do you have?") and [es-tu ?] ("are you?").

💬 [Vas-tu ?] uses the flipped order common in more careful question forms. In everyday speech with friends, [Comment tu vas ?] is also very common.

🇫🇷 [Comment vas-tu ?] is correct but can sound a bit neat or formal with close friends. In real casual conversation, many people would say [Ça va ?] or [Comment tu vas ?].

💬 Final [s] in [très] is usually silent, but before a vowel it links: [très bien] sounds like (tray-byan), with no [s] sound because [bien] starts with a consonant sound.