datéevsdaterConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,946
“datée” frequency rank
#17,671
“dater” frequency rank
29617
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature datée dater
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de dater. Marquer la date de quelque chose.

Same sound, different letters: datée vs dater

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

5 ch
datée
5 ch
dater

Homophone desk: datée vs dater

This is the hard kind. datée and dater are pronounced identically (\da.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

datée is recorded at frequency rank #11,946, classified as averb, pronounced \da.te\. dater is at rank #17,671, tagged as averb, pronounced \da.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 29617, this pair ranks #315,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of datée vs dater

Shared letters: adet. Private to "datée": é. Private to "dater": r.

"datée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "dater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dateradter · daetr · daterr · datre · datter · ddater · dtaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "datée" for "dater" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\da.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "datée" vs "dater" - which ranks higher?
"datée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,946 in our French list, against #17,671 for "dater". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "datée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dater" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "datée" and "dater" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DAE vs dater". 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 #315,551 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