certesvscréésConfusable pair

Quick tell: certes is a adverb, créés is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“certes” is an adverb and “créés” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,653
“certes” frequency rank
#6,489
“créés” frequency rank
8142
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature certes créés
Definition En vérité, sans mentir. Participe passé masculin pluriel de créer.

Where the eye mixes certes and créés

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

6 ch
certes
5 ch
créés

Visual trap between certes and créés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: certes is \sɛʁt\ while créés is \kʁe.e\. 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 (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8142, 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\. créés is at rank #6,489, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁe.e\.

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 8142, this pair ranks #420,980 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of certes vs créés

Shared letters: crs. Private to "certes": et. Private to "créés": é.

"certes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "créés" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • certesccertes · cerets · cerrtes · certess · certse · certtes · cetres · cretes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "certes" and "créés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "certes" is an adverb and "créés" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "certes" vs "créés" - which ranks higher?
"certes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,653 in our French list, against #6,489 for "créés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "certes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "créés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,980 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "certes" and "créés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cakes vs créés". 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 #420,980 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