sonner les cloches
\sɔ.ne le klɔʃ\
The verdict
“sonner les cloches” 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) - Gronder, réprimander vivement.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sonner-les-cloches · sonner les cloches · French
sonner les cloches · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 18 letters
- VOW-5 5 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 | sonner les cloches |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \sɔ.ne le klɔʃ\ |
| Letters | 18 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sonner les cloches » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sonner les cloches is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \sɔ.ne le klɔʃ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Gronder, réprimander vivement.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sonner les cloches, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 sonner les cloches, spelled S-O-N-N-E-R- -L-E-S- -C-L-O-C-H-E-S.
Definition
- 1Gronder, réprimander vivement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sonner les cloches appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Surtout n'y touche pas ! recommanda le brigadier. À la boîte, ils nous sonneraient les cloches pour nous être permis d'avoir bougé la vieille.
Le 6 février, la préf sonnait les cloches de la direction : lors d’un contrôle, fin 2015, elle avait découvert que la crèche réservée aux enfants du personnel fonctionnait sans avoir requis les autorisations de sécurité incendie nécessaires.
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.