cette vs cotte, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#55
“cette” frequency rank: #43,365
“cotte” frequency rank: 43420
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cette	cotte
Definition	Féminin singulier du déterminant démonstratif ce.	Jupe.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cette and cotte apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

cette

5 ch

cotte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cette is \sɛt\ while cotte is \kɔt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “cette” becomes o in “cotte”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43420, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cette is recorded at frequency rank #55, classified as adet, pronounced \sɛt\. cotte is at rank #43,365, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔt\.

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 43420, this pair ranks #218,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cette vs cotte

Shared letters: cet. Private to "cette": -. Private to "cotte": o.

"cette" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cette ← ccette · cete · cetet · ctete · ectte
cotte ← ccotte · cotet · ctote · octte

Frequency comparison

cette#55

cotte#43,365

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cette" and "cotte" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "cette" or "cotte"?

"cette" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #55 in our French list, against #43,365 for "cotte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cette vs cotte

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a determiner, it's “cette”; for a noun, it's “cotte”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cette” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable