alegrevsalerteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,235
“alegre” frequency rank
#2,907
“alerte” frequency rank
39142
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alegre alerte
Definition Gai, joyeux. Qui se tient sur ses gardes.

Where the eye mixes alegre and alerte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. alegre and alerte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
alegre
6 ch
alerte

Visual trap between alegre and alerte

A purely visual mix-up. alegre ([aˈle.ɣ̞ɾe]) and alerte (\a.lɛʁt\) 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 39142, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alegre is recorded at frequency rank #36,235, classified as anadj, pronounced [aˈle.ɣ̞ɾe]. alerte is at rank #2,907, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.lɛʁt\.

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 39142, this pair ranks #250,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alegre vs alerte

Shared letters: aelr. Private to "alegre": g. Private to "alerte": t.

"alegre" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "alerte" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alegre ← aelgre · aleger · aleggre · alegrre · alerge · algere · allegre · laegre
  • alerte ← aelrte · aleret · alerrte · alertte · aletre · allerte · alrete · laerte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alegre" for "alerte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈle.ɣ̞ɾe] versus \a.lɛʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "alegre" vs "alerte" - which ranks higher?
"alerte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,907 in our French list, against #36,235 for "alegre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alegre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alerte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #250,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alegre" and "alerte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alegre vs allègue". 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 #250,184 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