chercher la petite bête
\ʃɛʁ.ʃe la pə.tit bɛt\
The verdict
“chercher la petite bête” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 23
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Regarder trop aux détails, ergoter.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | chercher la petite bête |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ʃɛʁ.ʃe la pə.tit bɛt\ |
| Letters | 23 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chercher la petite bête” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for chercher la petite bête is 23 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʃɛʁ.ʃe la pə.tit bɛt\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Regarder trop aux détails, ergoter.".
chercher la petite bête doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is chercher la petite bête, spelled C-H-E-R-C-H-E-R- -L-A- -P-E-T-I-T-E- -B-Ê-T-E.
Definition
- 1Regarder trop aux détails, ergoter.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “chercher la petite bête”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-H-E-R-C-H-E-R- -L-A- -P-E-T-I-T-E- -B-Ê-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʃɛʁ.ʃe la pə.tit bɛt\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.