Would you like to conversate with me? Or converse with me?
Between conversate and converse, which is the correct spelling? The answer is converse, which is the only correct spelling among the two.
Conversate is a misspelling of converse that most likely came about because of the word conversation, which is the noun form of converse. People may mistakenly think conversate is the verb form of conversation because they share more letters in common, but converse is the only correct spelling of the word.
- Converse (verb): to talk back and forth
- Conversation (noun): a talk or chat
- Conversate: a misspelling of converse
There is also other definitions of converse that are not related to talking.
- Converse (noun): the opposite or reverse of something
- Converse (adjective): having traits that are the opposite or reverse of something
In this discussion, however, we are only looking at the verb form of converse.
Example sentences
Converse
I tried my best to converse with the new employee, but he seemed very unwilling to socialize.
The way the two brothers converse is unique and fun to watch.
Janet did not want to converse with any of her neighbors because she hated small talk.
After learning French, Jessie was finally able to converse with the French artist he ever so admired.
The colonel wanted to converse in private with the major about changes to be implemented on the current battle tactics.
Conversation
Jimmy had a serious conversation with the HR manager about the harassment he was getting from his coworkers.
Candice had no idea where the conversation was going, so she tried to bring them back to the original topic.
Morris said he didn’t remember the conversation with his wife in the morning, so we were worried he might have anterograde amnesia.
I had a conversation with the professor about my letter of recommendation for graduate school.
Please do not hold conversations in the elevators because there is a serious virus going around.
Conversate
A misspelling of converse.
Real-life example
The most famous (or infamous) usage of the incorrect conversate comes from a short excerpt, or meme, from RuPaul’s Drag Race in which two contestants are conversing when one of them uses the incorrect conversate.
Tatianna: And by that, I mean I’m not going to conversate with you. I’m not going to invest time—
Jujubee: I think it’s “converse.”
Tatianna: Huh?
Jujubee: Just say talk.
Here, contestant Tatianna unknowingly uses the incorrect word conversate. In response, Jujubee corrects her and then goes on to advise her to just say talk instead. If you are having much difficulty in knowing whether converse or conversate is the correct word, using simpler words like talk or speak is also a great option. The goal of language is to communicate what you want to convey to another person or other people, not to show off your vocabulary.
The statistics
On Google Books Ngram Viewer, you can see that conversate does not come up in any published book in the Google Books database. The correctly spelled converse, however, can be found in publications, although its usage has dropped since the 1800s.
The bottom line
So in a nutshell, use converse, not the incorrect conversate. If you are having trouble knowing which is the correct choice, try out our AI proofreader at Engram where you can get suggestions on spelling, grammar, and how natural your writing sounds.
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