sous la main
\su la mɛ̃\
The verdict
“sous la main” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Proche ; à portée.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sous la main |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \su la mɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sous la main” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for sous la main is 12 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \su la mɛ̃\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for sous la main, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is sous la main, spelled S-O-U-S- -L-A- -M-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Proche ; à portée.
- 2Sous l’autorité ; sous la dépendance.
- 3Se dit d’un cheval de voiture attelé, ou accoutumé de l’être, sous la main droite du cocher.
Antonyms
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “sous la main”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-O-U-S- -L-A- -M-A-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \su la mɛ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.