The French phrase "Bonne fête Papa" revealed

Get prepared to learn everything you ever wanted to know about the basic French sentence “Bonne fête Papa”.

More precisely, this includes a full guide of what it is and how you can use it in a normal conversation with an audio example. And because learning a new language is a big deal, we also sprinkled useful stuff like slow pronunciation audio, synonyms, dialogue example and more!

Oh and in case you are interested, you will find more of these sentences explained on this page plus the ultimate list of all our French words guides on this page. Ready to learn? Let’s go!

Table of Contents

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English translation

Pronunciation

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

Bonne fête Papa meaning

Definition

It literally means:

  • Bonne → Good
  • Fête → Celebration
  • Papa → Dad

This is the most famous way to wish your father a happy Father’s Day in French. It’s the shortened version of “Bonne fête des pères papa” which literally means “Happy father’s day to you dad“.

So you might wonder why in the short version “Bonne fête papa” we don’t precise which celebration we are talking about. And it’s because, with context and with you literally saying “Happy celebration dad” he will understand perfectly.

How to use

Pretty simple, just say to your father “Bonne fête papa !” or “Joyeuse fête des pères papa !“.

If you want to be more ceremonious, use instead the super full version “Je te souhaite une joyeuse/bonne fête des pères papa.” (I wish you a happy/good father’s day dad.)

Fun fact

In Quebec, “Joyeuse fête” doesn’t have the same meaning as in France, it means “Happy birthday“. While in France, to say “Happy birthday” we use “Joyeux anniversaire“.

So if your dad is from Quebec, be careful!

Synonyms

  • Bonne fête des pères. (“Have a good father’s day.“)
  • Joyeuse fête papa. (“Happy father’s day to you dad“)
  • Joyeuse fête des pères. (“Happy father’s day.“)
  • Je te souhaite une joyeuse fête des pères papa. (“I wish you a happy father’s day dad.“)
  • Je te souhaite une bonne fête des pères papa. (“I wish you a good father’s day dad.“)

Dialogue example with audio

Audio dialogue by French natives

Dialogue audio

Dialogue script

Bonjour
” Hello “
Bonjour et bonne fête papa ! “
” Hello and happy father’s day to you dad “
” Merci ! “
” Thank you! “
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