Kilo Lingo

(tán tán) - to have a chat, to talk a bit in Mandarin

tántán

Traditional: 談談

Line drawing of 谈谈
Coloured illustration of 谈谈
HSK 4
#505 of 5,000 Core 1000

Translation

to have a chat, to talk a bit

Word origin

A reduplication of 談 (tán) 'to talk'. 談 is a phono-semantic compound with 言 (speech) as radical and 炎 (yán) as phonetic. Doubling the verb softens it to 'have a chat'.

Origin
compound
Root
談 (tán, to talk: 言 speech + 炎 phonetic), reduplicated

Stroke order

Stroke order for 谈

Stroke order for 谈

Examples

Let's talk about this matter.

Can you have a chat with him?

I'd like to share my thoughts with you.

Let us sit down and have a chat.

Please tell me a bit about your ideas.

谈谈 (tán tán) is the reduplicated form of 谈 (tán, to talk or discuss). Verb reduplication in Mandarin adds a sense of doing something briefly, casually, or tentatively - so 谈谈 means to have a quick chat or talk a little about something. It softens the request compared to 谈 alone and is common in conversational invitations such as 来谈谈 (let's talk) or 想谈谈 (want to discuss).

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This word is part of lesson 11.