From a Northern England dialectal variant of gnatter (also knatter) ("to chatter, grumble; nibble away at"), ultimately of imitative origin. Cognate with German Low German gnattern (“to mumble, grumble, be grouchy”).
| Audio (Southern England): | (file) |
natter (third-person singular simple present natters, present participle nattering, simple past and past participle nattered)
natter (plural natters)
| Audio: | (file) |
natter
natter
| infinitive | simple | natter | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
| present participle or gerund1 | simple | nattant /na.tɑ̃/ | |||||
| compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
| past participle | natté /na.te/ | ||||||
| singular | plural | ||||||
| first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
| indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
| (simple tenses) |
present | natte /nat/ |
nattes /nat/ |
natte /nat/ |
nattons /na.tɔ̃/ |
nattez /na.te/ |
nattent /nat/ |
| imperfect | nattais /na.tɛ/ |
nattais /na.tɛ/ |
nattait /na.tɛ/ |
nattions /na.tjɔ̃/ |
nattiez /na.tje/ |
nattaient /na.tɛ/ | |
| past historic2 | nattai /na.te/ |
nattas /na.ta/ |
natta /na.ta/ |
nattâmes /na.tam/ |
nattâtes /na.tat/ |
nattèrent /na.tɛʁ/ | |
| future | natterai /na.tʁe/ |
natteras /na.tʁa/ |
nattera /na.tʁa/ |
natterons /na.tʁɔ̃/ |
natterez /na.tʁe/ |
natteront /na.tʁɔ̃/ | |
| conditional | natterais /na.tʁɛ/ |
natterais /na.tʁɛ/ |
natterait /na.tʁɛ/ |
natterions /na.tə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
natteriez /na.tə.ʁje/ |
natteraient /na.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 | natte /nat/ |
nattes /nat/ |
natte /nat/ |
nattions /na.tjɔ̃/ |
nattiez /na.tje/ |
nattent /nat/ |
| imperfect2 | nattasse /na.tas/ |
nattasses /na.tas/ |
nattât /na.ta/ |
nattassions /na.ta.sjɔ̃/ |
nattassiez /na.ta.sje/ |
nattassent /na.tas/ | |
| (compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
| pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
| imperative | – | – | – | ||||
| simple | — | natte /nat/ |
— | nattons /na.tɔ̃/ |
nattez /na.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:
(Christopher Kendris , Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). | |||||||