tenir sa langue
\tə.niʁ sa lɑ̃ɡ\
The verdict
“tenir sa langue” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ne pas divulguer une information confidentielle, un secret.
Corpus desk
Index FR-tenir-sa-langue · tenir sa langue · French
tenir sa langue · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-6 6 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "T" 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 | tenir sa langue |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \tə.niʁ sa lɑ̃ɡ\ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « tenir sa langue » en français
Rare enough to double-check
tenir sa langue is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \tə.niʁ sa lɑ̃ɡ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tenir sa langue, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 tenir sa langue, spelled T-E-N-I-R- -S-A- -L-A-N-G-U-E.
Definition
- 1Ne pas divulguer une information confidentielle, un secret.
- 2S’abstenir de faire des remarques déplacées.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tenir sa langue appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Ellora n’est au courant de rien. — Haith, prévint-il sans même la regarder, restez en dehors de ça ! Et tenez votre langue !
Nos parents jouèrent la surprise avec brio en déballant leur cadeau, ce qui nous rendit heureux et fiers, au bord des larmes de bonheur... La réalité est que le couple qui tenait la succursale du Primistère, amusé et surpris de notre démarche, n'avait pu tenir sa langue.
Synonyms
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.