Which to use
“carreau” is a noun and “carrera” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,826
- “carreau” frequency rank
- #44,356
- “carrera” frequency rank
- 60182
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | carreau | carrera |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet plat, ou ouverture, au contour approximativement carré. | Troisième personne du singulier du futur de carrer. |
Where the eye mixes carreau and carrera
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. carreau (CVCCVVV) and carrera (CVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between carreau and carrera
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carreau is \ka.ʁo\ while carrera is \ka.ʁə.ʁa\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
carreau is recorded at frequency rank #15,826, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁo\. carrera is at rank #44,356, tagged as averb, pronounced \ka.ʁə.ʁa\.
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 60182, this pair ranks #99,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of carreau vs carrera
Shared letters: acer. Private to "carreau": u. Private to "carrera": -.
"carreau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV · "carrera" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "carreau" and "carrera" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "carreau" or "carrera"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "carreau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carrera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #99,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "carreau" and "carrera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carrera 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 #99,017 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.