se mettre à l’eau
\sə mɛtʁ a l‿o\
The verdict
“se mettre à l’eau” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Se baigner dans une rivière, un lac, etc.
Corpus desk
Index FR-se-mettre-a-l-eau · se mettre à l’eau · French
se mettre à l’eau · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-7 7 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 mettre à l’eau |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \sə mɛtʁ a l‿o\ |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « se mettre à l’eau » en français
Rare enough to double-check
se mettre à l’eau is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \sə mɛtʁ a l‿o\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
se mettre à l’eau doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
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 se mettre à l’eau, spelled S-E- -M-E-T-T-R-E- -À- -L-’-E-A-U.
Definition
- 1Se baigner dans une rivière, un lac, etc.
- 2Prendre soudain une décision, généralement risquée ou d’issue incertaine, s’engager dans une entreprise sans certitude de réussir. Sauter le pas, se lancer.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how se mettre à l’eau appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Comme tout le monde, Hacine avait voulu en croquer. Son cousin Driss lui avait filé quelques dizaines de grammes et il s’était mis à l’eau comme ça, dealant médiocrement, presque dans la rue, aux touristes, la misère.
Synonyms
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.