altvshaltesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,561
“alt” frequency rank
#47,932
“haltes” frequency rank
63493
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alt haltes
Definition Vieux, vieille, âgé, âgée. Pluriel de halte.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set alt and haltes apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
alt
6 ch
haltes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: alt and haltes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \alt\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 3 extra letter(s) - “alt” sits inside “haltes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63493, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alt is recorded at frequency rank #15,561, classified as anadj, pronounced \alt\. haltes is at rank #47,932, tagged as anoun, pronounced \alt\.

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 63493, this pair ranks #81,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alt vs haltes

Shared letters: alt. Private to "alt": -. Private to "haltes": ehs.

"alt" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "haltes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haltesahltes · halets · halltes · haltess · haltse · halttes · hatles · hhaltes

Frequency comparison

alt#15,561
haltes#47,932

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alt" and "haltes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alt" is an adjective and "haltes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alt" or "haltes"?
"alt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,561 in our French list, against #47,932 for "haltes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering alt vs haltes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “alt”; for a noun, it's “haltes”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “alt” 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