Which to use
“cette” is a determiner and “coûte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #55
- “cette” frequency rank
- #2,915
- “coûte” frequency rank
- 2970
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cette | coûte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier du déterminant démonstratif ce. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de coûter. |
Where the eye mixes cette and coûte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cette is \sɛt\ while coûte is \kut\. 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 (determiner vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cette is recorded at frequency rank #55, classified as adet, pronounced \sɛt\. coûte is at rank #2,915, tagged as averb, pronounced \kut\.
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 2970, this pair ranks #435,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cette vs coûte
Shared letters: cet. Private to "cette": -. Private to "coûte": oû.
"cette" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "coûte" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cette ← ccette · cete · cetet · ctete · ectte