bâtiesvsbuttesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#23,788
“bâties” frequency rank
#35,412
“buttes” frequency rank
59200
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bâties buttes
Definition Féminin pluriel de bâti. Pluriel de butte.

Where the eye mixes bâties and buttes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bâties (CVCVVC) and buttes (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
bâties
6 ch
buttes

Look-alike desk: bâties vs buttes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bâties is \bɑ.ti\ while buttes is \byt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bâties is recorded at frequency rank #23,788, classified as anadj, pronounced \bɑ.ti\. buttes is at rank #35,412, tagged as anoun, pronounced \byt\.

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 59200, this pair ranks #104,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bâties vs buttes

Shared letters: best. Private to "bâties": iâ. Private to "buttes": u.

"bâties" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "buttes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • buttes ← bbuttes · btutes · butes · butets · buttess · buttse · ubttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bâties" and "buttes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bâties" is an adjective and "buttes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "bâties" or "buttes"?
"bâties" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,788 in our French list, against #35,412 for "buttes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bâties" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "buttes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,505 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bâties" and "buttes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "buses vs buttes". 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 #104,505 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