carréevscarréesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: carrée is a noun, carrées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“carrée” is a noun and “carrées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,130
“carrée” frequency rank
#24,510
“carrées” frequency rank
37640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carrée carrées
Definition Cadre, châssis de bois d’un lit. Féminin pluriel de carré.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set carrée and carrées apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
carrée
7 ch
carrées

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: carrée and carrées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ka.ʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “carrée” sits inside “carrées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carrée is recorded at frequency rank #13,130, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁe\. carrées is at rank #24,510, tagged as anadj, 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 37640, this pair ranks #261,060 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carrée vs carrées

Shared letters: aceré. Private to "carrée": -. Private to "carrées": s.

"carrée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "carrées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequency comparison

carrée#13,130
carrées#24,510

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carrée" and "carrées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carrée" is a noun and "carrées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "carrée" or "carrées"?
"carrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,130 in our French list, against #24,510 for "carrées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering carrée vs carrées

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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