pourquoi pas
\puʁ.kwa pɑ\
The verdict
“pourquoi pas” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - On pourrait le faire, pour quelle raison ne le ferait-on pas.
Corpus desk
Index FR-pourquoi-pas · pourquoi pas · French
pourquoi pas · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-6 6 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 | pourquoi pas |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | \puʁ.kwa pɑ\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « pourquoi pas » en français
Rare enough to double-check
pourquoi pas is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as aphrase, transcribed \puʁ.kwa pɑ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "On pourrait le faire, pour quelle raison ne le ferait-on pas.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pourquoi pas, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. 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.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is pourquoi pas, spelled P-O-U-R-Q-U-O-I- -P-A-S.
Definition
- 1On pourrait le faire, pour quelle raison ne le ferait-on pas.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pourquoi pas appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Tiens, pourquoi donc pas ?
– Mais bon Dieu, ce sont des enfants. Les vieillards d’accord. La femme... pourquoi pas ? Mais on ne peut pas toucher à un mioche ! Tu pourrais pas faire ça, dis ? Tu ne peux pas faire ça !
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.