citéevscôteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: citée is a verb, côte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“citée” is a verb and “côte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,448
“citée” frequency rank
#1,288
“côte” frequency rank
10736
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature citée côte
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe citer. Chacun des os qui forment la cage thoracique.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set citée and côte apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
citée
4 ch
côte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: citée is \si.te\ while côte is \kot\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

citée is recorded at frequency rank #9,448, classified as averb, pronounced \si.te\. côte is at rank #1,288, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kot\.

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 10736, this pair ranks #411,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of citée vs côte

Shared letters: cet. Private to "citée": . Private to "côte": ô.

"citée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "côte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequency comparison

citée#9,448
côte#1,288

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "citée" and "côte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "citée" is a verb and "côte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "citée" or "côte"?
"côte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,288 in our French list, against #9,448 for "citée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering citée vs côte

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list