cesevscetteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cese is a noun, cette is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cese” is a noun and “cette” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,212
“cese” frequency rank
#55
“cette” frequency rank
47267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cese cette
Definition Cessation, action de cesser. Féminin singulier du déterminant démonstratif ce.

Where the eye mixes cese and cette

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

4 ch
cese
5 ch
cette

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cese is \ˈθese\ while cette is \sɛt\. 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 (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cese is recorded at frequency rank #47,212, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈθese\. cette is at rank #55, tagged as adet, pronounced \sɛt\.

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 47267, this pair ranks #188,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cese vs cette

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cese": s. Private to "cette": t.

"cese" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cette" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceseccese · cees · csee · ecse
  • cetteccette · cete · cetet · ctete · ectte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cese" and "cette" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cese" is a noun and "cette" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cese" or "cette"?
"cette" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #55 in our French list, against #47,212 for "cese". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "cese" and "cette". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cese" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cette" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cese" and "cette" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cese". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list