cottavsquotasConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#46,090
“cotta” frequency rank
#13,044
“quotas” frequency rank
59134
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cotta quotas
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de cotter. Pluriel de quota.

Same sound, different letters: cotta vs quotas

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. cotta runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against quotas's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cotta
6 ch
quotas

Homophone desk: cotta vs quotas

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: cotta and quotas carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ.ta\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, 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 59134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cotta is recorded at frequency rank #46,090, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.ta\. quotas is at rank #13,044, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.ta\.

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 59134, this pair ranks #104,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cotta vs quotas

Shared letters: aot. Private to "cotta": c. Private to "quotas": qsu.

"cotta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "quotas" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cottaccotta · cotat · ctota · octta
  • quotasqoutas · qquotas · quoats · quotass · quotsa · quottas · qutoas · uqotas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cotta" and "quotas" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cotta" is a verb and "quotas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cotta" vs "quotas" - which ranks higher?
"quotas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,044 in our French list, against #46,090 for "cotta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "cotta" / "quotas". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cotta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quotas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cotta" and "quotas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cotta vs coupa". 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 #104,878 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