débitervsdébutéeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,810
“débiter” frequency rank
#41,237
“débutée” frequency rank
78047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débiter débutée
Definition Vendre d’une façon continue, répétée, surtout au détail. Participe passé féminin singulier de débuter.

Where the eye mixes débiter and débutée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. débiter (CVCVCVC) and débutée (CVCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
débiter
7 ch
débutée

Visual trap between débiter and débutée

A purely visual mix-up. débiter (\de.bi.te\) and débutée (\de.by.te\) 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 78047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débiter is recorded at frequency rank #36,810, classified as averb, pronounced \de.bi.te\. débutée is at rank #41,237, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.by.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 78047, this pair ranks #26,767 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débiter vs débutée

Shared letters: bdeté. Private to "débiter": ir. Private to "débutée": u.

"débiter" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "débutée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "débiter" and "débutée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.bi.te\ versus \de.by.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "débiter" or "débutée"?
"débiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,810 in our French list, against #41,237 for "débutée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "débiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "débutée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,767 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débiter" and "débutée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débiter vs désister". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #26,767 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