papoter

French

Etymology

From Old French papier (“to murmur”) (from the onomatopoeic root "papp-", occurring in Latin pappare (“to eat”), having to do with movement of the lips) + -oter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.pɔ.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

papoter (intransitive)

1. (colloquial) to chat, chatter [from 1737]

   Synonyms: bavarder, tailler le bout de gras

   des heures passées à papoter ― hours spent chattering

2. (obsolete) to nibble [in 1611]

Conjugation

Conjugation of papoter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	papoter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	papotant /pa.pɔ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		papoté /pa.pɔ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	papote /pa.pɔt/	papotes /pa.pɔt/	papote /pa.pɔt/	papotons /pa.pɔ.tɔ̃/	papotez /pa.pɔ.te/	papotent /pa.pɔt/
	imperfect	papotais /pa.pɔ.tɛ/	papotais /pa.pɔ.tɛ/	papotait /pa.pɔ.tɛ/	papotions /pa.pɔ.tjɔ̃/	papotiez /pa.pɔ.tje/	papotaient /pa.pɔ.tɛ/
	past historic2	papotai /pa.pɔ.te/	papotas /pa.pɔ.ta/	papota /pa.pɔ.ta/	papotâmes /pa.pɔ.tam/	papotâtes /pa.pɔ.tat/	papotèrent /pa.pɔ.tɛʁ/
	future	papoterai /pa.pɔ.tʁe/	papoteras /pa.pɔ.tʁa/	papotera /pa.pɔ.tʁa/	papoterons /pa.pɔ.tʁɔ̃/	papoterez /pa.pɔ.tʁe/	papoteront /pa.pɔ.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	papoterais /pa.pɔ.tʁɛ/	papoterais /pa.pɔ.tʁɛ/	papoterait /pa.pɔ.tʁɛ/	papoterions /pa.pɔ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	papoteriez /pa.pɔ.tə.ʁje/	papoteraient /pa.pɔ.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	papote /pa.pɔt/	papotes /pa.pɔt/	papote /pa.pɔt/	papotions /pa.pɔ.tjɔ̃/	papotiez /pa.pɔ.tje/	papotent /pa.pɔt/
	imperfect2	papotasse /pa.pɔ.tas/	papotasses /pa.pɔ.tas/	papotât /pa.pɔ.ta/	papotassions /pa.pɔ.ta.sjɔ̃/	papotassiez /pa.pɔ.ta.sje/	papotassent /pa.pɔ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	papote /pa.pɔt/	—	papotons /pa.pɔ.tɔ̃/	papotez /pa.pɔ.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• papoteur
• papoteuse
• papotier
• papotière

 

Further reading

• “papoter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.