débitervsdébuteraTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,810
“débiter” frequency rank
#23,521
“débutera” frequency rank
60331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débiter débutera
Definition Vendre d’une façon continue, répétée, surtout au détail. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de débuter.

Where the eye mixes débiter and débutera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. débiter runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against débutera's 8 (CVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
débiter
8 ch
débutera

Visual trap between débiter and débutera

A purely visual mix-up. débiter (\de.bi.te\) and débutera (\de.by.tə.ʁa\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60331, 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\. débutera is at rank #23,521, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.by.tə.ʁa\.

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 60331, this pair ranks #98,172 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débiter vs débutera

Shared letters: bderté. Private to "débiter": i. Private to "débutera": au.

"débiter" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "débutera" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "débiter" for "débutera" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.bi.te\ versus \de.by.tə.ʁa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "débiter" or "débutera" show up more?
"débutera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,521 in our French list, against #36,810 for "débiter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "débiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "débutera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,172 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débiter" and "débutera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débiter vs désister". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #98,172 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