Which to use
“collée” is a verb and “collègue” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,886
- “collée” frequency rank
- #3,743
- “collègue” frequency rank
- 25629
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | collée | collègue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé féminin singulier de coller. | Personne qui exerce la même profession ou qui travaille dans la même organisation qu’une autre. |
Where the eye mixes collée and collègue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. collée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against collègue's 8 (CVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between collée and collègue
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: collée is \kɔ.le\ while collègue is \kɔ.lɛɡ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 25629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
collée is recorded at frequency rank #21,886, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.le\. collègue is at rank #3,743, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.lɛɡ\.
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 25629, this pair ranks #339,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of collée vs collègue
Shared letters: celo. Private to "collée": é. Private to "collègue": guè.
"collée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "collègue" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "collée" for "collègue" ever safe?
Which is more common, "collée" or "collègue"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "collée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "collègue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #339,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "collée" and "collègue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "colla vs collée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #339,757 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.