cédée vs celle, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cédée” is a verb and “celle” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,121
“cédée” frequency rank: #254
“celle” frequency rank: 30375
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cédée	celle
Definition	Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe céder.	Compartiment des bains romains.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cédée and celle apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

cédée

5 ch

celle

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cédée is \se.de\ while celle is \sɛl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30375, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cédée is recorded at frequency rank #30,121, classified as averb, pronounced \se.de\. celle is at rank #254, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛl\.

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 30375, this pair ranks #310,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cédée vs celle

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cédée": dé. Private to "celle": l.

"cédée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "celle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

celle ← ccelle · cele · celel · clele · eclle

Frequency comparison

cédée#30,121

celle#254

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cédée" and "celle" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cédée" is a verb and "celle" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cédée" or "celle"?

"celle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #254 in our French list, against #30,121 for "cédée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cédée vs celle

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “cédée”; for a noun, it's “celle”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cédée” entry
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