sur le bout des doigts
\syʁ lə bu de dwa\
The verdict
“sur le bout des doigts” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 22
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.
Corpus desk
Index FR-sur-le-bout-des-doigts · sur le bout des doigts · French
sur le bout des doigts · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 22 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 | sur le bout des doigts |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \syʁ lə bu de dwa\ |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sur le bout des doigts » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sur le bout des doigts is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \syʁ lə bu de dwa\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sur le bout des doigts, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
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 sur le bout des doigts, spelled S-U-R- -L-E- -B-O-U-T- -D-E-S- -D-O-I-G-T-S.
Definition
- 1Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sur le bout des doigts appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le dimanche matin, un animateur propose un débat autour d’un grand sujet philosophique accessible autant aux amateurs qu’à ceux qui connaissent leur Kant sur le bout des doigts !
Du baume de Judée à la cinnamome, en passant par le castoreum tiré des testicules des castors, il me faut tout savoir sur le bout des doigts, comme si j’étais au service de l’épouse d’un grand notable.
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.