comme chien et chat

\kɔm ʃjɛ̃ e ʃa\

/\kɔm ʃjɛ̃ e ʃa\/ adv

The verdict

“comme chien et chat” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
19
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Se dit de deux personnes qui sont en conflit perpétuel, qui se cherchent querelle pour tout motif. — Note d’usage : La locution est utilisée avec des verbes comme être, s’entendre, s’accorder, s’ai...

Key facts for comme chien et chat
PropertyValue
Headwordcomme chien et chat
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\kɔm ʃjɛ̃ e ʃa\
Letters19
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “comme chien et chat” sits in French frequency

comme chien et chat falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

comme chien et chat is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \kɔm ʃjɛ̃ e ʃa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Se dit de deux personnes qui sont en conflit perpétuel, qui se cherchent querelle pour tout motif. — Note d’usage : La locution est utilisée avec des verbes comme être, s’entendre, s’accorder, s’ai...".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for comme chien et chat, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is comme chien et chat, spelled C-O-M-M-E- -C-H-I-E-N- -E-T- -C-H-A-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Se dit de deux personnes qui sont en conflit perpétuel, qui se cherchent querelle pour tout motif. — Note d’usage : La locution est utilisée avec des verbes comme être, s’entendre, s’accorder, s’aimer, vivre.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "comme chien et chat"?
"comme chien et chat" is spelled C-O-M-M-E- -C-H-I-E-N- -E-T- -C-H-A-T. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔm ʃjɛ̃ e ʃa\.
What does "comme chien et chat" mean?
As an adverb, "comme chien et chat" means: Se dit de deux personnes qui sont en conflit perpétuel, qui se cherchent querelle pour tout motif. — Note d’usage : La locution est utilisée avec des verbes comme être, s’entendre, s’accorder, s’ai...
How do you pronounce "comme chien et chat"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "comme chien et chat" is \kɔm ʃjɛ̃ e ʃa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "comme chien et chat" come from?
"comme chien et chat" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “comme chien et chat”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is C-O-M-M-E- -C-H-I-E-N- -E-T- -C-H-A-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \kɔm ʃjɛ̃ e ʃa\ (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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list