picoter

French

Etymology

From piquer +‎ -oter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi.kɔ.te/

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

picoter

1. (of a bird) to peck
2. (informal) to bug, to pester, to annoy
3. to itch, to prickle
4. to tingle

Conjugation

Conjugation of picoter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	picoter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	picotant /pi.kɔ.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		picoté /pi.kɔ.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	picote /pi.kɔt/	picotes /pi.kɔt/	picote /pi.kɔt/	picotons /pi.kɔ.tɔ̃/	picotez /pi.kɔ.te/	picotent /pi.kɔt/
	imperfect	picotais /pi.kɔ.tɛ/	picotais /pi.kɔ.tɛ/	picotait /pi.kɔ.tɛ/	picotions /pi.kɔ.tjɔ̃/	picotiez /pi.kɔ.tje/	picotaient /pi.kɔ.tɛ/
	past historic2	picotai /pi.kɔ.te/	picotas /pi.kɔ.ta/	picota /pi.kɔ.ta/	picotâmes /pi.kɔ.tam/	picotâtes /pi.kɔ.tat/	picotèrent /pi.kɔ.tɛʁ/
	future	picoterai /pi.kɔ.tʁe/	picoteras /pi.kɔ.tʁa/	picotera /pi.kɔ.tʁa/	picoterons /pi.kɔ.tʁɔ̃/	picoterez /pi.kɔ.tʁe/	picoteront /pi.kɔ.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	picoterais /pi.kɔ.tʁɛ/	picoterais /pi.kɔ.tʁɛ/	picoterait /pi.kɔ.tʁɛ/	picoterions /pi.kɔ.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	picoteriez /pi.kɔ.tə.ʁje/	picoteraient /pi.kɔ.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	picote /pi.kɔt/	picotes /pi.kɔt/	picote /pi.kɔt/	picotions /pi.kɔ.tjɔ̃/	picotiez /pi.kɔ.tje/	picotent /pi.kɔt/
	imperfect2	picotasse /pi.kɔ.tas/	picotasses /pi.kɔ.tas/	picotât /pi.kɔ.ta/	picotassions /pi.kɔ.ta.sjɔ̃/	picotassiez /pi.kɔ.ta.sje/	picotassent /pi.kɔ.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	picote /pi.kɔt/	—	picotons /pi.kɔ.tɔ̃/	picotez /pi.kɔ.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

• picotement

Further reading

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