carryvscarteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“carry” and “carte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,091
“carry” frequency rank
#716
“carte” frequency rank
30807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carry carte
Definition Plat traditionnel réunionnais ou mauricien d’origine tamoule. 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 eye mixes carry and carte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
carry
5 ch
carte

Look-alike desk: carry vs carte

A purely visual mix-up. carry (\ka.ʁi\) and carte (\kaʁt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carry is recorded at frequency rank #30,091, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.ʁi\. 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 30807, this pair ranks #307,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carry vs carte

Shared letters: acr. Private to "carry": y. Private to "carte": et.

"carry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "carte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carryacrry · carryy · cary · caryr · ccarry · crary
  • carteacrte · caret · carrte · cartte · catre · ccarte · crate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carry" and "carte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ka.ʁi\ versus \kaʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "carry" vs "carte" - which ranks higher?
"carte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #716 in our French list, against #30,091 for "carry". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "carry" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #307,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carry" and "carte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carrez vs carry". 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 #307,862 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list