bottervsbuttesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#33,579
“botter” frequency rank
#35,412
“buttes” frequency rank
68991
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature botter buttes
Definition Frapper à l’aide du pied. Pluriel de butte.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set botter and buttes apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
botter
6 ch
buttes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: botter is \bɔ.te\ 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

botter is recorded at frequency rank #33,579, classified as averb, pronounced \bɔ.te\. 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 68991, this pair ranks #56,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of botter vs buttes

Shared letters: bet. Private to "botter": or. Private to "buttes": su.

"botter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "buttes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • botterbbotter · boter · botetr · botterr · bottre · btoter · obtter
  • buttesbbuttes · btutes · butes · butets · buttess · buttse · ubttes

Frequency comparison

botter#33,579
buttes#35,412

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "botter" and "buttes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "botter" is a verb and "buttes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "botter" or "buttes"?
"botter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,579 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.

Remembering botter vs buttes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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