Tete-a-tete commonly known in English? [closed]
Can anyone tell me if the expression "we had a tete-a-tete" or just "tete-a-tete" is commonly known for all English native speakers? Thanks a lot!
Solution 1:
Tete-a-tete is a French expression which is present in all main English dictionaries
The expression appears to have been more commonly used in the past according to Google Books probably under the influence of French books popular at that time, but I'd say it is not very common usage nowadays.
According to the Grammarist:
Tete-a-tete (pronounced tet-uh-tet) comes from the French tête-à-tête, which translates literally to head to head. In English, we use it mainly as:
- (1) a noun meaning a private conversation between two people,
- (2) an adjective meaning involving two people conversing in private, and
- (3) an adverb meaning done in private between two people.
These are its conventional meanings, anyway. The phrase is also sometimes used to mean a match or competition between two people, and it’s sometimes used to refer to meetings or conversations that are not necessarily private or limited to two people.
- We usually italicize loanwords and loan phrases that are new to English, but tete-a-tete has been in English for at least three centuries, so it usually goes unitalicized in normal use.