carrésvscarteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: carrés is a adjective, carte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,058
“carrés” frequency rank
#716
“carte” frequency rank
6774
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carrés carte
Definition Masculin pluriel de carré. 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 spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set carrés and carte apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
carrés
5 ch
carte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carrés is \ka.ʁe\ while carte is \kaʁt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carrés is recorded at frequency rank #6,058, 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 6774, this pair ranks #425,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of carrés vs carte

Shared letters: acr. Private to "carrés": . Private to "carte": et.

"carrés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "carte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carteacrte · caret · carrte · cartte · catre · ccarte · crate

Frequency comparison

carrés#6,058
carte#716

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carrés" and "carte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carrés" is an adjective and "carte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "carrés" or "carte"?
"carte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #716 in our French list, against #6,058 for "carrés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering carrés vs carte

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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