Everything about the French quote "Un tête-à-tête"

Ready to discover all the things you need to know about the basic idiom “Un tête-à-tête”?

To be more precise, it includes a full definition of what it is and how you can use it in a casual conversation with an audio example. But wait, we also added some super useful stuff like dialogue example, slow pronunciation audio, synonyms and more!

If you want, you can also find more of these idioms explained on this page plus the ultimate directory of all our French words pages on this page. Have fun!

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English translation

Pronunciation example

Slow pronunciation

Normal pronunciation

What does un tête-à-tête mean?

Definition

We use it to describe a “one-on-one” private conversation between two people. The literal meaning “A head to head” is a metaphor for two heads talking to each other.

It can be used to describe a one-on-one meeting at work, a date or just a conversation between friends.

How to use

Few examples:

  • Aujourd’hui j’ai une réunion en tête-à-tête avec mon patron (Today I have a one-on-one meeting with my boss)
  • Ce soir j’ai un tête-à-tête avec ma copine (Tonight I have a date with my girlfriend)
  • On peut parler en tête-à-tête ? (Can we talk one-on-one?)

Fun facts

There is a similar expression “un face-à-face” which is similar to the English expression “A face-to-face“. But this isn’t exactly a synonym, since we use it more in competitive contexts, typically for sports games.

Example: “Le face-à-face entre les deux joueurs a commencé ! (The face to face between the two players started!)

Synonyms and similarities

  • Un entretien privé → A private interview
  • Un face-à-face → A face-to-face

Example in a story with slow French audio

Now, let’s see a complete example of this idiom in a story with slow French audio and the English translation below.
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Je démissionne
I resign
___
Brigitte décida finalement de démissionner de son travail.
Brigitte finally decided to resign from her job.
Elle avait prévu de l’annoncer à son patron, Louis, ce matin.
She had planned to announce it to her boss, Louis, this morning.
Comme d’habitude, elle mangea son petit-déjeuner, se prépara et se dirigea vers son lieu de travail.
As usual, she ate her breakfast, got ready and headed to her workplace.
Elle ne voulait pas perdre de temps…
She didn’t want to waste time…
Donc une fois arrivée, elle alla directement vers le bureau de son patron.
So once arrived, she went straight to her boss’s office.
Elle frappa à la porte…
She knocked at the door…
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