au petit bonheur la chance
\o p(ə).ti bɔ.nœʁ la ʃɑ̃s\
The verdict
“au petit bonheur la chance” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 26
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - À l’aventure, au hasard, à tout hasard.
Corpus desk
Index FR-au-petit-bonheur-la-chan · au petit bonheur la chance · French
au petit bonheur la chance · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 26 letters
- VOW-10 10 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | au petit bonheur la chance |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \o p(ə).ti bɔ.nœʁ la ʃɑ̃s\ |
| Letters | 26 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « au petit bonheur la chance » en français
Rare enough to double-check
au petit bonheur la chance is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \o p(ə).ti bɔ.nœʁ la ʃɑ̃s\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "À l’aventure, au hasard, à tout hasard.".
au petit bonheur la chance doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is au petit bonheur la chance, spelled A-U- -P-E-T-I-T- -B-O-N-H-E-U-R- -L-A- -C-H-A-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1À l’aventure, au hasard, à tout hasard.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how au petit bonheur la chance appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je prendrais un jour – le plus tard possible – pour aller prévenir Albin, puis, je reviendrais, je finirais mon ouvrage, et, quand le bras du patron serait redevenu vivant, au petit bonheur la chance, on aviserait.
Des couples quittent la galère, s’en vont au petit bonheur la chance, sans mots, pressés, la gorge sèche, se retrouvent seuls sur la mer et se balancent un long moment sous le ciel poivré.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.