carrévscarrerConfusable pair

Quick tell: carré is a adjective, carrer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“carré” is an adjective and “carrer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,386
“carré” frequency rank
#48,969
“carrer” frequency rank
52355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carré carrer
Definition En forme de rectangle dont les côtés sont tous égaux. Donner une figure carrée, rendre carré.

Same sound, different letters: carré vs carrer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

5 ch
carré
6 ch
carrer

Homophone desk: carré vs carrer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: carré and carrer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ka.ʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carré is recorded at frequency rank #3,386, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.ʁe\. carrer is at rank #48,969, tagged as averb, pronounced \ka.ʁe\.

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 52355, this pair ranks #148,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carré vs carrer

Shared letters: acr. Private to "carré": é. Private to "carrer": e.

"carré" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "carrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carreracrrer · carer · carerr · carrerr · carrre · ccarrer · crarer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carré" and "carrer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carré" is an adjective and "carrer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "carré" vs "carrer" - which ranks higher?
"carré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,386 in our French list, against #48,969 for "carrer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "carré" / "carrer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "carré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,307 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carré" and "carrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carrer 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 #148,307 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