cadresvscartesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,442
“cadres” frequency rank
#1,766
“cartes” frequency rank
5208
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadres cartes
Definition Pluriel de cadre. Pluriel de carte.

Where the eye mixes cadres and cartes

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

6 ch
cadres
6 ch
cartes

Look-alike desk: cadres vs cartes

A purely visual mix-up. cadres (\kɑdʁ\) and cartes (\kaʁt\) 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 5208, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cadres is recorded at frequency rank #3,442, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɑdʁ\. cartes is at rank #1,766, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaʁt\.

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 5208, this pair ranks #429,639 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cadres vs cartes

Shared letters: acers. Private to "cadres": d. Private to "cartes": t.

"cadres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cartes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadresacdres · caddres · caders · cadress · cadrres · cadrse · cardes · ccadres
  • cartesacrtes · carets · carrtes · cartess · cartse · carttes · catres · ccartes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cadres" and "cartes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɑdʁ\ versus \kaʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cadres" or "cartes"?
"cartes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,766 in our French list, against #3,442 for "cadres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cadres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cartes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #429,639 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadres" and "cartes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cadres vs carrez". 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 #429,639 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