cottevsCteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,365
“cotte” frequency rank
#42,264
“Cte” frequency rank
85629
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cotte Cte
Definition Jupe. Comte.

Where the eye mixes cotte and Cte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cotte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Cte's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cotte
3 ch
Cte

Visual trap between cotte and Cte

A purely visual mix-up. cotte (\kɔt\) and Cte (\kɔ̃t\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cotte is recorded at frequency rank #43,365, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔt\. Cte is at rank #42,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃t\.

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 85629, this pair ranks #11,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cotte vs Cte

Shared letters: cet. Private to "cotte": o. Private to "Cte": -.

"cotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Cte" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cotte ← ccotte · cotet · ctote · octte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cotte" for "Cte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔt\ versus \kɔ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cotte" or "Cte"?
"Cte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,264 in our French list, against #43,365 for "cotte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cotte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cotte" and "Cte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cosette vs cotte". 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 #11,017 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