tiens donc
\tjɛ̃ dɔ̃k\
The verdict
“tiens donc” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marque l’étonnement, la surprise ou l’incrédulité, voire le doute.
Corpus desk
Index FR-tiens-donc · tiens donc · French
tiens donc · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 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 | tiens donc |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | \tjɛ̃ dɔ̃k\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « tiens donc » en français
Rare enough to double-check
tiens donc is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as aninterjection, transcribed \tjɛ̃ dɔ̃k\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Marque l’étonnement, la surprise ou l’incrédulité, voire le doute.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for tiens donc, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is tiens donc, spelled T-I-E-N-S- -D-O-N-C.
Definition
- 1Marque l’étonnement, la surprise ou l’incrédulité, voire le doute.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how tiens donc appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Tiens donc ! fit-il d'un ton dubitatif.
Les étudiants sont malheureusement très doués pour se fourrer dans des situations embarrassantes au plus mauvais des moments : un disque dur rendra l’âme, une clé USB se perdra, une carte graphique grillera, ou une installation d’un tout nouveau macOS fera tout planter… Toujours de préférence quelques jours (ou heures) à peine avant une échéance annoncée…
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.