cortevscorvéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,386
“corte” frequency rank
#21,583
“corvée” frequency rank
48969
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature corte corvée
Definition Cour. Travail et service gratuit qui était dû par le paysan à son seigneur.

Where the eye mixes corte and corvée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. corte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against corvée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
corte
6 ch
corvée

Visual trap between corte and corvée

A purely visual mix-up. corte (\ˈkɔr.te\) and corvée (\kɔʁ.ve\) 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 48969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

corte is recorded at frequency rank #27,386, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔr.te\. corvée is at rank #21,583, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ.ve\.

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 48969, this pair ranks #174,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of corte vs corvée

Shared letters: ceor. Private to "corte": t. Private to "corvée": vé.

"corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "corvée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corte ← ccorte · coret · corrte · cotre · ocrte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "corte" and "corvée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈkɔr.te\ versus \kɔʁ.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "corte" vs "corvée" - which ranks higher?
"corvée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,583 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 "corte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corvée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #174,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "corte" and "corvée" 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 #174,573 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