ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard

\nə pa ka.se tʁwa pa.t‿a œ̃ ka.naʁ\

/\nə pa ka.se tʁwa pa.t‿a œ̃ ka.naʁ\/ verb

The verdict

“ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard” 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
38
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Être très commun, ne rien avoir d’extraordinaire, être à la limite de la médiocrité.

Key facts for ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard
PropertyValue
Headwordne pas casser trois pattes à un canard
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\nə pa ka.se tʁwa pa.t‿a œ̃ ka.naʁ\
Letters38
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard” sits in French frequency

ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard 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.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard is 38 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \nə pa ka.se tʁwa pa.t‿a œ̃ ka.naʁ\. 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: "Être très commun, ne rien avoir d’extraordinaire, être à la limite de la médiocrité.".

No misspelling variants are generated for ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard, spelled N-E- -P-A-S- -C-A-S-S-E-R- -T-R-O-I-S- -P-A-T-T-E-S- -À- -U-N- -C-A-N-A-R-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Être très commun, ne rien avoir d’extraordinaire, être à la limite de la médiocrité.

Synonyms

ne pas casser des briquesne pas casser des meublesne pas casser les vitres

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.

Cite this page

Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:

PlainSpell, “ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/ne-pas-casser-trois-pattes-a-un-canard

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard"?
"ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard" is spelled N-E- -P-A-S- -C-A-S-S-E-R- -T-R-O-I-S- -P-A-T-T-E-S- -À- -U-N- -C-A-N-A-R-D. The IPA pronunciation is \nə pa ka.se tʁwa pa.t‿a œ̃ ka.naʁ\.
What does "ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard" mean?
As a verb, "ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard" means: Être très commun, ne rien avoir d’extraordinaire, être à la limite de la médiocrité.
How do you pronounce "ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard" is \nə pa ka.se tʁwa pa.t‿a œ̃ ka.naʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard" come from?
"ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 “ne pas casser trois pattes à un canard”

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

  • The one correct French spelling is N-E- -P-A-S- -C-A-S-S-E-R- -T-R-O-I-S- -P-A-T-T-E-S- -À- -U-N- -C-A-N-A-R-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \nə pa ka.se tʁwa pa.t‿a œ̃ ka.naʁ\ (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

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter N in our French index:

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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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list