schwätzen

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See also: schwatzen and Schwatzen

German

Etymology

From Middle High German swetzen, swatzen, akin to Middle High German swaz (talk, chatter). Cognate with Pennsylvania German schwetze, Luxembourgish schwätzen, Dutch zwetsen.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʃvɛtsən/,
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

schwätzen (weak, third-person singular present schwätzt, past tense schwätzte, past participle geschwätzt, auxiliary haben)

  1. to chat, talk, babble, prate
    Synonyms: sich unterhalten, plaudern, quatschen, labern, schwafeln
    Hört auf zu schwätzen, sonst muss ich euch beide auseinandersetzen.
    Stop chatting now, otherwise I have to make you two sit apart from each other.
  2. (southwestern Germany) to speak, talk
    Synonyms: reden, sprechen
    Ich muss mal mit ihm drüber schwätzen.
    I’ll have to talk to him about it sometime.

Usage notes

  • In southwestern Germany (Baden-Württemberg, southern Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland) this is a neutral, albeit somewhat informal, word for speaking.
  • Elsewhere it is more restricted and roughly interchangeable with the variant schwatzen. A very loose distinction may be identified insofar as schwätzen usually means chatting among a group, while schwatzen also refers to one person who talks a lot. Both may have a negative tone, especially with situations where one ought to be silent (e.g. during a school lesson as above).
  • The derivatives Geschwätz (idle talk), Schwätzer (babbler, windbag) belong more to schwatzen, while Schwatz, Schwätzchen (chat) belong more to schwätzen. The latter two nouns are usually not negative.

Conjugation

Further reading

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Middle High German swetzen. Cognate with German schwätzen, schwatzen. For the past participle geschwat compare setzen.

Pronunciation

Verb

schwätzen (third-person singular present schwätzt, past participle geschwat, auxiliary verb hunn)

  1. (intransitive) to speak
    Schwätz méi lues, ech kann dech net verstoen.
    Speak more slowly, I can't understand you.
  2. (transitive) to speak (a language)
    Hie ka keen Englesch schwätzen.
    He can't speak English.

Conjugation

Regular
infinitive schwätzen
participle geschwat
auxiliary hunn
present
indicative
imperative
1st singular schwätzen
2nd singular schwätz schwätz
3rd singular schwätzt
1st plural schwätzen
2nd plural schwätzt schwätzt
3rd plural schwätzen
(n) or (nn) indicates the Eifeler Regel.

Derived terms