datéevsditesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,946
“datée” frequency rank
#1,409
“dites” frequency rank
13355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature datée dites
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de dater. Participe passé féminin pluriel du verbe dire.

Where the eye mixes datée and dites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
datée
5 ch
dites

Visual trap between datée and dites

A purely visual mix-up. datée (\da.te\) and dites (\dit\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13355, 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\. dites is at rank #1,409, tagged as averb, pronounced \dit\.

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 13355, this pair ranks #401,352 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of datée vs dites

Shared letters: det. Private to "datée": . Private to "dites": is.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ditesddites · diets · ditess · ditse · dittes · dties · idtes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "datée" and "dites" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\da.te\ versus \dit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "datée" or "dites"?
"dites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,409 in our French list, against #11,946 for "datée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "datée" and "dites" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "datée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,352 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "datée" and "dites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damné vs datée". 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 #401,352 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