Are you a chatty person? I am! Today we’ll have a look at the verb bavarder, which means “to chat” in French. We’ll also have a quick look at the related adjective bavard (chatty, talkative).
bavarder
to chat
Bavarder – To chat in French
Word origin
The French verb bavarder (to chat) is related to the feminine noun bave (drool, slobber). Bave comes from the Old French beve, which in turn comes from the Vulgar Latin baba (drool, spit).
Present tenes conjugation
Bavarder (to chat) is a regular ER verb. This means that its endings are the same as all other regular ER verbs when conjugated in the present tense.
Je bavarde I chat
Tu bavardes You chat
Il, elle bavarde He, she chats
Nous bavardons We chat
Vous bavardez You chat
Ils, elles bavardent They chat
Example sentences
This first example sentence uses the word copain which means friend. Ami also means friend. This lesson on our site covers the various ways of saying friend in French.
Je bavarde avec mes copains après le travail.
I chat with my friends after work.
For this example, the expression bavarder dans le dos (literally: to chat in the back) means to chat or gossip behind the backs of others. This Word of the Day lesson looks at gens vs. personnnes, the two ways of saying people in French.
Je n’aime pas les gens qui bavardent dans le dos des autres.
I don’t like people who talk behind the backs of others.
This next sentences uses the adjective bavard. The feminine form would be bavarde. This lesson on our site covers French adjectives in detail.
Parfois je suis un peu trop bavard. C’est possible que je parle un peu trop.
Sometimes I’m a bit chatty. It’s possible that I talk a bit too much.
Conclusion
Et voilà ! You now know how to use bavarder (to chat) in French. Now check another Word of the Day lesson covering the fun and useful verb bosser (to work, to work hard).
