pinailler
French, verb/pi.na.je/
pinailler is spelled P-I-N-A-I-L-L-E-R (9 letters) and appears about once in every 7 million words in written French, the 89,528th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Pinailler is a French verb meaning “nitpick, split hairs (to correct minutiae or find fault)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “S’attarder sur des détails sans intérêt, argumenter avec des précisions superflues, de façon mesquine”.
What does pinailler mean in English?
verb
- 1
colloquialnitpick, split hairs (to correct minutiae or find fault)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. S’attarder sur des détails sans intérêt, argumenter avec des précisions superflues, de façon mesquine.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of pinailler
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- pinaillant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- pinaillé participle past
- pinaille first-person indicative present
- pinailles indicative present second-person
- pinaillons first-person indicative plural
- pinaillez indicative plural present
- pinaillent indicative plural present
- pinaillais first-person imperfect indicative
- pinaillait imperfect indicative singular
- pinaillions first-person imperfect indicative
- pinailliez imperfect indicative plural
- pinaillaient imperfect indicative plural
- pinaillai first-person historic indicative
- pinaillas historic indicative past
- pinailla historic indicative past
- pinaillâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce pinailler?
- /pi.na.je/
- \pi.nɑ.je\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to pinailler
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is pinailler in French?
pinailler appears about once in every 7 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).