payer les pots cassés
\pe.je lɛ po ka.se\
The verdict
“payer les pots cassés” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 21
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Payer les dommages matériels, subir les conséquences fâcheuses d’une affaire, d’une aventure, etc., endosser la responsabilité d’une action, assumer des faits souvent indépendants de sa volonté.
Corpus desk
Index FR-payer-les-pots-casses · payer les pots cassés · French
payer les pots cassés · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 21 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | payer les pots cassés |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \pe.je lɛ po ka.se\ |
| Letters | 21 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « payer les pots cassés » en français
Rare enough to double-check
payer les pots cassés is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \pe.je lɛ po ka.se\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Payer les dommages matériels, subir les conséquences fâcheuses d’une affaire, d’une aventure, etc., endosser la responsabilité d’une action, assumer des faits souvent indépendants de sa volonté.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for payer les pots cassés in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is payer les pots cassés, spelled P-A-Y-E-R- -L-E-S- -P-O-T-S- -C-A-S-S-É-S.
Definition
- 1Payer les dommages matériels, subir les conséquences fâcheuses d’une affaire, d’une aventure, etc., endosser la responsabilité d’une action, assumer des faits souvent indépendants de sa volonté.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how payer les pots cassés appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je vous avoue, moi qui imagine pour vous ces choses, que je vois approcher avec plaisir le moment où la vieille dame va payer les pots cassés.
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.