sur le coup
\syʁ lə ku\
The verdict
“sur le coup” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - À ce moment-là
Corpus desk
Index FR-sur-le-coup · sur le coup · French
sur le coup · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 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 coup |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \syʁ lə ku\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « sur le coup » en français
Rare enough to double-check
sur le coup is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \syʁ lə ku\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for sur le coup, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is sur le coup, spelled S-U-R- -L-E- -C-O-U-P.
Definition
- 1À ce moment-là
- 2Sur-le-champ, immédiatement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how sur le coup appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Cette trouille ! Sur le coup, j'ai cru qu'il avait aperçu un truc chaudard. Une mygale, un boa, un caïman.
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.