Which to use
“carré” is an adjective and “carte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,386
- “carré” frequency rank
- #716
- “carte” frequency rank
- 4102
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carré | carte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | En forme de rectangle dont les côtés sont tous égaux. | Représentation géométrique conventionnelle, en positions relatives, de phénomènes concrets ou abstraits (pays, région, ville, astres dans le ciel, etc.), localisables dans l’espace, à échelle réduite. |
Where the eye mixes carré and carte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: carré vs carte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carré is \ka.ʁe\ while carte is \kaʁt\. 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 4102, 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\. carte is at rank #716, 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 4102, this pair ranks #432,456 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of carré vs carte
Shared letters: acr. Private to "carré": é. Private to "carte": et.
"carré" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "carte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- carte ← acrte · caret · carrte · cartte · catre · ccarte · crate
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "carré" for "carte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "carré" or "carte"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "carré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #432,456 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carré" and "carte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carré 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 #432,456 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.