se couper en quatre
\sə ku.pe ɑ̃ katʁ\
The verdict
“se couper en quatre” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 19
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Faire des efforts considérables pour rendre service à quelqu’un.
Corpus desk
Index FR-se-couper-en-quatre · se couper en quatre · French
se couper en quatre · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 19 letters
- VOW-8 8 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "S" 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 | se couper en quatre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \sə ku.pe ɑ̃ katʁ\ |
| Letters | 19 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « se couper en quatre » en français
Rare enough to double-check
se couper en quatre is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \sə ku.pe ɑ̃ katʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Faire des efforts considérables pour rendre service à quelqu’un.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for se couper en quatre in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is se couper en quatre, spelled S-E- -C-O-U-P-E-R- -E-N- -Q-U-A-T-R-E.
Definition
- 1Faire des efforts considérables pour rendre service à quelqu’un.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how se couper en quatre appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je les aimais de très bon cœur ; pour eux, je me serais fait couper en quatre, et m’imaginais vraiment que cela durerait ainsi toute la vie.
Le gérant est tellement ravi de m’avoir enfermé ici qu’il se coupe en quatre pour m’être agréable.
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.