carréesvscarrerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,510
“carrées” frequency rank
#48,969
“carrer” frequency rank
73479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carrées carrer
Definition Féminin pluriel de carré. Donner une figure carrée, rendre carré.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set carrées and carrer apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
carrées
6 ch
carrer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: carrées 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 73479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carrées is recorded at frequency rank #24,510, 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 73479, this pair ranks #40,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carrées vs carrer

Shared letters: acer. Private to "carrées": . Private to "carrer": -.

"carrées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "carrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequency comparison

carrées#24,510
carrer#48,969

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carrées" and "carrer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carrées" is an adjective and "carrer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "carrées" or "carrer"?
"carrées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,510 in our French list, against #48,969 for "carrer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering carrées vs carrer

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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