essayer de
\e.se.je də\
The verdict
“essayer de” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Mettre à l’essai une chose, une personne, pour voir si elle est propre à ce qu’on veut en faire.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | essayer de |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \e.se.je də\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “essayer de” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
essayer de is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \e.se.je də\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for essayer de, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is essayer de, spelled E-S-S-A-Y-E-R- -D-E.
Definition
- 1Mettre à l’essai une chose, une personne, pour voir si elle est propre à ce qu’on veut en faire.
- 2Tâcher de.
Synonyms
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
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Using “essayer de”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is E-S-S-A-Y-E-R- -D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \e.se.je də\ (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.