Dr Suzanne Kobeisse
Several years ago I was preparing a student for a series of meetings with a French partner company. He had reasonable French, solid vocabulary, and had studied the business terminology carefully. He came back from the first meeting looking slightly shaken. The content had gone fine. But he had used tu with the senior director from the start, and he could feel, without anyone saying anything, that it had not landed well. Nobody corrected him. Nobody was rude. But something had shifted in the room.
This is the thing about French professional culture. The courtesies are real, they are felt, and they are rarely explained to outsiders. My student had done everything right on paper. What he had missed was the social grammar that sits underneath the language.
The tu/vous decision
In English, "you" covers everything. In French, you must choose between tu (informal, singular) and vous (formal, or plural). In a professional context, the default is always vous unless someone explicitly invites you to switch. That invitation, on peut se tutoyer ("we can use tu with each other"), is a meaningful gesture. It signals warmth, trust, and a move towards a less formal relationship. It is almost always initiated by the senior person in the room.
Until that invitation comes, stick with vous. This applies even in relatively casual environments. Tech companies in Paris may feel more relaxed than a traditional law firm, but the etiquette around tu and vous persists across industries. Getting it wrong in the direction of too much formality is recoverable. Getting it wrong by being too familiar is harder to undo.
One practical note: if you are in any doubt about how to address someone in writing before you have met them, use Madame or Monsieur followed by their surname. Do not use their first name in the salutation of a formal email unless the relationship is already established. This feels stiff to British eyes, but it is simply correct in French professional correspondence.
Opening a meeting with intention
French professional meetings often begin with a short period of social exchange before the agenda is touched. This is not wasted time. It is relationship maintenance. Comment vous portez-vous? (How are you?) or Avez-vous fait bon voyage? (Did you have a good journey?) are not throat-clearing. They are small signals that you see the person in front of you as a person, not just a counterpart.
If you are in Paris or visiting a French office, it is worth knowing that handshakes are standard on arrival and departure. You shake hands with everyone in the room. Skipping someone, even unintentionally, is noticed. In more established professional relationships, the greeting may become la bise, the cheek kiss. This is highly context-dependent: industry, region, whether you are in a formal or informal setting, and whether the relationship warrants it. If you are unsure, extend your hand. Nobody will be offended by a handshake.
The language of meetings
Once you are in the meeting itself, there are a handful of phrases that signal competence and attentiveness. To ask for clarification politely: Pourriez-vous préciser ce point? (Could you clarify that point?). To signal agreement: Tout à fait (Absolutely, precisely). To introduce your position: De mon côté (From my side) or En ce qui me concerne (As far as I'm concerned). To summarise before a decision: Si je comprends bien... (If I understand correctly...).
These are not just useful phrases. They demonstrate that you are operating within the professional register your counterpart expects, rather than translating loosely from English into grammatically correct but tonally flat French.
It is also worth knowing that French meeting culture tends to place weight on argumentation and intellectual rigour. A well-structured counter-argument is respected; blunt disagreement without reasoning is not. If you need to push back on a point, frame it carefully. Je comprends votre position, cependant... (I understand your position, however...) is a phrase that opens a door without slamming the one behind you.
Email conventions: the sign-off matters
French business emails follow conventions that feel elaborate to British writers but carry real information. The sign-off in particular is not a formality you can improvise. The standard formal close is: Veuillez agréer, Madame/Monsieur, l'expression de mes salutations distinguées. This is the full version, used when the relationship is formal or new.
For established professional relationships, you can use something shorter: Cordialement (Cordially, roughly equivalent to "Kind regards") or Bien cordialement (a slightly warmer version). These are widely used and always appropriate once a working relationship exists.
What you should avoid is ending with just your name, or using overly casual closings. Bonne journée (Have a good day) is fine at the end of a quick follow-up, but it would feel out of place closing a detailed business proposal.
One more thing about French email etiquette: the subject line is treated as a summary, not a headline. Be specific. Suite à notre réunion du 15 octobre (Following our meeting of 15 October) tells the reader exactly what they are opening. Quelques questions (A few questions) does not.
Small things that are not small
French business culture values preparation. Arriving at a meeting with a clear agenda, having read any documents sent in advance, and demonstrating that you have thought about the subject before you arrive: these things are noticed. Equally, interrupting someone before they have finished making their point is generally considered poor form, even when the pace of discussion is fast.
If you are entertaining French clients or colleagues, food and wine are taken seriously, not as entertainment but as a genuine expression of care. Asking about dietary preferences in advance, choosing a good restaurant rather than a convenient one, and showing some knowledge of what is on the table: these are small acts that communicate a lot about how you approach the relationship.
I often tell my business French students that the language is a door and the culture is the room. You can find the door without understanding much of the room, but the visit will be much richer if you do both. The courtesies I have described here are learnable, and they travel. Use them consistently and they will change how your French counterparts experience working with you.