schwätzen

== German == === Etymology === From Middle High German swetzen, swatzen, akin to Middle High German swaz (“talk, chatter”), from swateren (“to clatter, rustle”), probably ultimately of imitative origin. Cognate with Pennsylvania German schwetze, Luxembourgish schwätzen, Dutch zwetsen. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈʃvɛtsən/, [ˈʃʋɛ.t͡sn̩] === Verb === schwätzen (weak, third-person singular present schwätzt, past tense schwätzte, past participle geschwätzt, auxiliary haben) to chat, talk, babble, prate Synonyms: sich unterhalten, plaudern, quatschen, labern, schwafeln (southwestern Germany) to speak, talk Synonyms: reden, sprechen ==== 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 ==== ==== Related terms ==== Geschwätz, geschwätzig Schwatz, Schwätzchen schwatzen === Further reading === “schwätzen” in Duden online “schwätzen”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎[1] (in German) == Luxembourgish == === Etymology === From Middle High German swetzen, from swateren (“to clatter, rustle”), probably ultimately of imitative origin. Cognate with German schwätzen, schwatzen. For the past participle geschwat compare setzen. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): [ˈʃwæt͡sən] === Verb === schwätzen (third-person singular present schwätzt, past participle geschwat, auxiliary verb hunn) (intransitive) to speak (transitive) to speak (a language) ==== Conjugation ==== ==== Derived terms ====