datervsdotésConfusable pair

Quick tell: dater is a verb, dotés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#17,671
“dater” frequency rank
#13,572
“dotés” frequency rank
31243
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dater dotés
Definition Marquer la date de quelque chose. Masculin pluriel de doté.

Where the eye mixes dater and dotés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dater
5 ch
dotés

Visual trap between dater and dotés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dater is \da.te\ while dotés is \dɔ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dater is recorded at frequency rank #17,671, classified as averb, pronounced \da.te\. dotés is at rank #13,572, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dɔ.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 31243, this pair ranks #305,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dater vs dotés

Shared letters: dt. Private to "dater": aer. Private to "dotés": osé.

"dater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dotés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dater" and "dotés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dater" is a verb and "dotés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "dater" or "dotés" show up more?
"dotés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,572 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dater" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dotés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #305,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dater" and "dotés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dotés vs douées". 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 #305,018 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