Which to use
“certes” is an adverb and “cordes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,653
- “certes” frequency rank
- #6,282
- “cordes” frequency rank
- 7935
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | certes | cordes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | En vérité, sans mentir. | Pluriel de corde. |
Where the eye mixes certes and cordes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: certes vs cordes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: certes is \sɛʁt\ while cordes is \kɔʁd\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
certes is recorded at frequency rank #1,653, classified as anadv, pronounced \sɛʁt\. cordes is at rank #6,282, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁd\.
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 7935, this pair ranks #421,667 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of certes vs cordes
Shared letters: cers. Private to "certes": t. Private to "cordes": do.
"certes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "cordes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "certes" and "cordes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "certes" vs "cordes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "certes" and "cordes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "certes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cordes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #421,667 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "certes" and "cordes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cordes vs courges". 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 #421,667 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.