abattrevsabattusTell them apart

Which to use

“abattre” and “abattus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,489
“abattre” frequency rank
#14,590
“abattus” frequency rank
23079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abattre abattus
Definition Mettre à bas ; jeter à terre ; faire tomber. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe abattre.

Where the eye mixes abattre and abattus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
abattre
7 ch
abattus

Why the eye confuses abattre with abattus

A purely visual mix-up. abattre (\a.batʁ\) and abattus (\a.ba.ty\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abattre is recorded at frequency rank #8,489, classified as averb, pronounced \a.batʁ\. abattus is at rank #14,590, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ba.ty\.

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 23079, this pair ranks #354,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of abattre vs abattus

Shared letters: abt. Private to "abattre": er. Private to "abattus": su.

"abattre" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCCV  ·  "abattus" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abattreaabttre · abatre · abatrte · abatter · abattrre · abbattre · abtatre · baattre
  • abattusaabttus · abattsu · abattuss · abatus · abatuts · abbattus · abtatus · baattus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abattre" for "abattus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.batʁ\ versus \a.ba.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "abattre" vs "abattus" - which ranks higher?
"abattre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,489 in our French list, against #14,590 for "abattus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "abattre" and "abattus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abattre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "abattus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abattre" and "abattus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abattre vs albâtre". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #354,495 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list