cornervscorteConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#13,555
“corner” frequency rank
#27,386
“corte” frequency rank
40941
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature corner corte
Definition Sonner d’un cornet ou d’une corne. Cour.

Where the eye mixes corner and corte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
corner
5 ch
corte

Visual trap between corner and corte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: corner is \kɔʁ.ne\ while corte is \ˈkɔr.te\. 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 40941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

corner is recorded at frequency rank #13,555, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔʁ.ne\. corte is at rank #27,386, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔr.te\.

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 40941, this pair ranks #236,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of corner vs corte

Shared letters: ceor. Private to "corner": n. Private to "corte": t.

"corner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cornerccorner · conrer · corenr · cornerr · cornner · cornre · corrner · croner
  • corteccorte · coret · corrte · cotre · ocrte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "corner" and "corte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "corner" is a verb and "corte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "corner" or "corte" show up more?
"corner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,555 in our French list, against #27,386 for "corte". 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 "corner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #236,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "corner" and "corte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs corte". 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 #236,796 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