rien à foutre
\ʁjɛ̃.n‿a futʁ\
The verdict
“rien à foutre” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - N’avoir rien à faire, s’ennuyer, ne pas savoir quoi faire.
Corpus desk
Index FR-rien-a-foutre · rien à foutre · French
rien à foutre · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "R" 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 | rien à foutre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \ʁjɛ̃.n‿a futʁ\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « rien à foutre » en français
Rare enough to double-check
rien à foutre is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \ʁjɛ̃.n‿a futʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "N’avoir rien à faire, s’ennuyer, ne pas savoir quoi faire.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for rien à foutre, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is rien à foutre, spelled R-I-E-N- -À- -F-O-U-T-R-E.
Definition
- 1N’avoir rien à faire, s’ennuyer, ne pas savoir quoi faire.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how rien à foutre appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il n’a vraiment rien à foutre et passe ses journées devant la télévision.
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.