ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère

\nə pa.z‿i a.le a.vɛk lə do də la kɥi.jɛʁ\

/\nə pa.z‿i a.le a.vɛk lə do də la kɥi.jɛʁ\/ verb

The verdict

“ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère” 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
41
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Ne pas lésiner, agir sans douceur, sans modération, sans précaution. Être direct, très franc, voire rude, y aller carrément, franchement.

Key facts for ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère
PropertyValue
Headwordne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\nə pa.z‿i a.le a.vɛk lə do də la kɥi.jɛʁ\
Letters41
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère” sits in French frequency

ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère 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 y aller avec le dos de la cuillère is 41 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \nə pa.z‿i a.le a.vɛk lə do də la kɥi.jɛʁ\. 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: "Ne pas lésiner, agir sans douceur, sans modération, sans précaution. Être direct, très franc, voire rude, y aller carrément, franchement.".

No misspelling variants are generated for ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère 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 y aller avec le dos de la cuillère, spelled N-E- -P-A-S- -Y- -A-L-L-E-R- -A-V-E-C- -L-E- -D-O-S- -D-E- -L-A- -C-U-I-L-L-È-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ne pas lésiner, agir sans douceur, sans modération, sans précaution. Être direct, très franc, voire rude, y aller carrément, franchement.

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.

Cite this page

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

PlainSpell, “ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère, 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-y-aller-avec-le-dos-de-la-cuillere

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère"?
"ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère" is spelled N-E- -P-A-S- -Y- -A-L-L-E-R- -A-V-E-C- -L-E- -D-O-S- -D-E- -L-A- -C-U-I-L-L-È-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \nə pa.z‿i a.le a.vɛk lə do də la kɥi.jɛʁ\.
What does "ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère" mean?
As a verb, "ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère" means: Ne pas lésiner, agir sans douceur, sans modération, sans précaution. Être direct, très franc, voire rude, y aller carrément, franchement.
How do you pronounce "ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère" is \nə pa.z‿i a.le a.vɛk lə do də la kɥi.jɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère" come from?
"ne pas y aller avec le dos de la cuillère" 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 y aller avec le dos de la cuillère”

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

  • The one correct French spelling is N-E- -P-A-S- -Y- -A-L-L-E-R- -A-V-E-C- -L-E- -D-O-S- -D-E- -L-A- -C-U-I-L-L-È-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \nə pa.z‿i a.le a.vɛk lə do də la kɥi.jɛʁ\ (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