carréesvscarrezWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,510
“carrées” frequency rank
#49,540
“carrez” frequency rank
74050
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carrées carrez
Definition Féminin pluriel de carré. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe carrer.

Where the spellings diverge

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

7 ch
carrées
6 ch
carrez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: carrées and carrez 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 74050, 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\. carrez is at rank #49,540, 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 74050, this pair ranks #38,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carrées vs carrez

Shared letters: acer. Private to "carrées": . Private to "carrez": z.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carrezacrrez · carerz · carez · carrezz · carrze · ccarrez · crarez

Frequency comparison

carrées#24,510
carrez#49,540

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carrées" and "carrez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carrées" is an adjective and "carrez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "carrées" or "carrez"?
"carrées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,510 in our French list, against #49,540 for "carrez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering carrées vs carrez

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 “carrez”.
  • 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