Which to use
“4e” and “quatrième” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,157
- “4e” frequency rank
- #1,751
- “quatrième” frequency rank
- 7908
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | 4e | quatrième |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Quatrième. | Adjectif ordinal correspondant au nombre quatre. |
Same sound, different letters: 4e vs quatrième
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 1 letter. 4e runs 1 letters (V) against quatrième's 9 (CVVCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: 4e vs quatrième
This is the hard kind. 4e and quatrième are pronounced identically (\ka.tʁi.jɛm\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 7 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
4e is recorded at frequency rank #6,157, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.tʁi.jɛm\. quatrième is at rank #1,751, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ka.tʁi.jɛm\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 7908, this pair ranks #421,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of 4e vs quatrième
Shared letters: e. Private to "4e": -. Private to "quatrième": aimqrtuè.
"4e" · 1 letters · shape V · "quatrième" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "4e" for "quatrième" ever safe?
Which is more common, "4e" or "quatrième"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "4e" / "quatrième". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "4e" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quatrième" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #421,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "4e" and "quatrième" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "4e vs quatrièmes". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #421,756 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.