cahoter

French

Etymology

Uncertain. The Trésor de la langue française suggests a derivation from Middle Dutch hotten (“to shake”). Other sources suggest a derivation from Latin quatiō, from Frankish *hottôn, or that the word is onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ɔ.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

cahoter

1. (transitive) to bump, jolt
2. (intransitive) to jolt along, bounce along

Conjugation

Conjugation of cahoter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	cahoter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	cahotant /ka.ɔ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		cahoté /ka.ɔ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	cahote /ka.ɔt/	cahotes /ka.ɔt/	cahote /ka.ɔt/	cahotons /ka.ɔ.tɔ̃/	cahotez /ka.ɔ.te/	cahotent /ka.ɔt/
	imperfect	cahotais /ka.ɔ.tɛ/	cahotais /ka.ɔ.tɛ/	cahotait /ka.ɔ.tɛ/	cahotions /ka.ɔ.tjɔ̃/	cahotiez /ka.ɔ.tje/	cahotaient /ka.ɔ.tɛ/
	past historic2	cahotai /ka.ɔ.te/	cahotas /ka.ɔ.ta/	cahota /ka.ɔ.ta/	cahotâmes /ka.ɔ.tam/	cahotâtes /ka.ɔ.tat/	cahotèrent /ka.ɔ.tɛʁ/
	future	cahoterai /ka.ɔ.tʁe/	cahoteras /ka.ɔ.tʁa/	cahotera /ka.ɔ.tʁa/	cahoterons /ka.ɔ.tʁɔ̃/	cahoterez /ka.ɔ.tʁe/	cahoteront /ka.ɔ.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	cahoterais /ka.ɔ.tʁɛ/	cahoterais /ka.ɔ.tʁɛ/	cahoterait /ka.ɔ.tʁɛ/	cahoterions /ka.ɔ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	cahoteriez /ka.ɔ.tə.ʁje/	cahoteraient /ka.ɔ.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	cahote /ka.ɔt/	cahotes /ka.ɔt/	cahote /ka.ɔt/	cahotions /ka.ɔ.tjɔ̃/	cahotiez /ka.ɔ.tje/	cahotent /ka.ɔt/
	imperfect2	cahotasse /ka.ɔ.tas/	cahotasses /ka.ɔ.tas/	cahotât /ka.ɔ.ta/	cahotassions /ka.ɔ.ta.sjɔ̃/	cahotassiez /ka.ɔ.ta.sje/	cahotassent /ka.ɔ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	cahote /ka.ɔt/	—	cahotons /ka.ɔ.tɔ̃/	cahotez /ka.ɔ.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Related terms

• cahot
• cahoteux

Further reading

• “cahoter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.