French word of the Day: Papoter

Local France

2 days ago

Why do I need to know papoter?
It's a slang term and one that is used in casual conversation, especially if you're chewing the fat over drinks.
What does it mean?
It means to chatter, to chinwag, to chitchat, to prattle, to natter - a casual term for talking that also has the sense that the subject of the conversation is not particularly serious.
Slightly more formal but with roughly the same meaning is
bavarder
. The noun version of this is
bavard/e
, so for example
une fille bavarde
- means a girl who talks a lot.
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Papoter
carries the sense that the subject of the conversation is not especially serious - so for example your bank manager wouldn't invite you to
papoter
about your persistent over-spending. However it doesn't necessarily mean gossip - in the sense of swapping scandalous or scurrilous news/theories about people you may know.
If you want to talk about gossiping in French, then
les potins
means 'the gossip' in the sense of the latest news, while
le ragot
means gossip that is slightly more malicious, in the sense of spreading damaging stories about people.
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Use it like this
Au café je papote avec les meufs
- At the café, I chat with the girls
J'aimerais rester et papoter mais j'ai rendez-vous chez le vétérinaire pour mon chat
- I'd love to stay and chat, but I have an appointment with the vet for my cat.
Si vous pouviez finir de papoter, on pourrait peut-être travailler un peu
- If you can lot can finish up the chitchat then maybe we can do some work.
Je ne te paye pas pour papoter
- I don't pay you to natter.