www.alphadictionary.com

tête-à-tête

I) A private face-to-face conversation. II). A piece of furniture especially built for two people to have a tête-à-tête conversation.

This is certainly a fun word to say, you can see why we English speakers would appropriate this word. Much more fun than "face-to-face" (circa 1497), and "tête-à-tête" is a younger word by 200 years. The Franco-Anglo cultural exchange is quite wonderful IMHO.

TTFN

E

Face-to-face and face-time are cold to me. Tête-à-tête has a warm, confab, feeling. Perhaps because it's French?

"We had a face-to-face meeting" has a harsher feel to it than "We had a nice tête-à-tête."

Tête-à-tête feels more mutual, face-to-face can come across as confrontational.

Face-to-face is certain more serious, and if you want it to be confrontational then there is always the face-off.

E