sur le bout des ongles
\syʁ lə bu dɛz‿ɔ̃ɡl\
The verdict
“sur le bout des ongles” 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-ongles · sur le bout des ongles · French
sur le bout des ongles · 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 ongles |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \syʁ lə bu dɛz‿ɔ̃ɡl\ |
| Letters | 22 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sur le bout des ongles » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sur le bout des ongles is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \syʁ lə bu dɛz‿ɔ̃ɡl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.".
sur le bout des ongles has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is sur le bout des ongles, spelled S-U-R- -L-E- -B-O-U-T- -D-E-S- -O-N-G-L-E-S.
Definition
- 1Parfaitement, en parlant d’un sujet qu’on maîtrise.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how sur le bout des ongles appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Même pas la moindre petite taxe pour les deux cubis de Château Monderche, ces mecs-là étaient en règle maitrisant la loi sur le bout des ongles.
Un réseau social comme Facebook permet à ses clients de vous connaître sur le bout des ongles.
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.