cédées vs cèdre, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#38,237
“cédées” frequency rank: #28,508
“cèdre” frequency rank: 66745
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cédées	cèdre
Definition	Participe passé féminin pluriel du verbe céder.	Espèce d’arbre du genre Cedrus, conifère de grande taille de la famille des Pinacées, aux branches horizontales en plans superposés et à cônes globuleux et dressés, souvent utilisé pour l’ornementation et dont le bois passe pour incorruptible.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch

cédées

5 ch

cèdre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cédées is \se.de\ while cèdre is \sɛdʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cédées is recorded at frequency rank #38,237, classified as averb, pronounced \se.de\. cèdre is at rank #28,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛdʁ\.

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 66745, this pair ranks #66,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cédées vs cèdre

Shared letters: cde. Private to "cédées": sé. Private to "cèdre": rè.

"cédées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "cèdre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequency comparison

cédées#38,237

cèdre#28,508

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cédées" and "cèdre" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "cédées" or "cèdre"?

"cèdre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,508 in our French list, against #38,237 for "cédées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cédées vs cèdre

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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