côtoyévscôtoyerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: côtoyé is a adjective, côtoyer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“côtoyé” is an adjective and “côtoyer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,825
“côtoyé” frequency rank
#20,975
“côtoyer” frequency rank
44800
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature côtoyé côtoyer
Definition Bordé. Être côte à côte avec, marcher auprès de, quelqu'un.

Same sound, different letters: côtoyé vs côtoyer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

6 ch
côtoyé
7 ch
côtoyer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: côtoyé and côtoyer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ko.twa.je\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44800, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

côtoyé is recorded at frequency rank #23,825, classified as anadj, pronounced \ko.twa.je\. côtoyer is at rank #20,975, tagged as averb, pronounced \ko.twa.je\.

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 44800, this pair ranks #207,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of côtoyé vs côtoyer

Shared letters: cotyô. Private to "côtoyé": é. Private to "côtoyer": er.

"côtoyé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV  ·  "côtoyer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "côtoyé" and "côtoyer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "côtoyé" is an adjective and "côtoyer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "côtoyé" or "côtoyer"?
"côtoyer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,975 in our French list, against #23,825 for "côtoyé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "côtoyé" and "côtoyer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "côtoyé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "côtoyer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "côtoyé" and "côtoyer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cotons vs côtoyé". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list