se donner des airs
\sə dɔ.ne dɛ.z‿ʁ\
The verdict
“se donner des airs” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 18
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Se donner des airs d'importance pour faire impression.
Corpus desk
Index FR-se-donner-des-airs · se donner des airs · French
se donner des airs · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-6 6 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 donner des airs |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \sə dɔ.ne dɛ.z‿ʁ\ |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « se donner des airs » en français
Rare enough to double-check
se donner des airs is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \sə dɔ.ne dɛ.z‿ʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Se donner des airs d'importance pour faire impression.".
se donner des airs doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is se donner des airs, spelled S-E- -D-O-N-N-E-R- -D-E-S- -A-I-R-S.
Definition
- 1Se donner des airs d'importance pour faire impression.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how se donner des airs appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
J’aurais voulu hurler : « Vous n’êtes rien… Vous n’êtes qu’une marmelade de commerçants qui se donnent des airs… Et le dollar est votre gangrène.
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.