concretvsconcrèteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“concret” and “concrète” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,363
“concret” frequency rank
#10,669
“concrète” frequency rank
19032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature concret concrète
Definition Concept distinguant le réel de l’imaginaire. Matière grasse solide à température ambiante.

Where the eye mixes concret and concrète

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. concret runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against concrète's 8 (CVCCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
concret
8 ch
concrète

Why the eye confuses concret with concrète

A purely visual mix-up. concret (\kɔ̃.kʁɛ\) and concrète (\kɔ̃.kʁɛt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

concret is recorded at frequency rank #8,363, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.kʁɛ\. concrète is at rank #10,669, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.kʁɛt\.

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 19032, this pair ranks #375,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of concret vs concrète

Shared letters: cenort. Private to "concret": -. Private to "concrète": è.

"concret" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "concrète" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • concret ← cconcret · cnocret · cocnret · conccret · concrett · concrret · concrte · conncret

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "concret" and "concrète" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.kʁɛ\ versus \kɔ̃.kʁɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "concret" vs "concrète" - which ranks higher?
"concret" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,363 in our French list, against #10,669 for "concrète". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "concret" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "concrète" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,368 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "concret" and "concrète" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "concret vs congres". 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

Confusion rank #375,368 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list