adoptévsadoptéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: adopté is a adjective, adoptée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“adopté” is an adjective and “adoptée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,121
“adopté” frequency rank
#5,830
“adoptée” frequency rank
8951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adopté adoptée
Definition Qui est légalement adopté. Femme adoptée.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set adopté and adoptée apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
adopté
7 ch
adoptée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: adopté and adoptée carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.dɔp.te\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “adopté” sits inside “adoptée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8951, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adopté is recorded at frequency rank #3,121, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.dɔp.te\. adoptée is at rank #5,830, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.dɔp.te\.

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 8951, this pair ranks #418,303 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of adopté vs adoptée

Shared letters: adopté. Private to "adopté": -. Private to "adoptée": e.

"adopté" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "adoptée" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV

Frequency comparison

adopté#3,121
adoptée#5,830

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "adopté" and "adoptée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "adopté" is an adjective and "adoptée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "adopté" or "adoptée"?
"adopté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,121 in our French list, against #5,830 for "adoptée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering adopté vs adoptée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “adopté”; for a noun, it's “adoptée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “adopté” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list