déterminéevsdéterminerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: déterminée is a adjective, déterminer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#8,104
“déterminée” frequency rank
#2,671
“déterminer” frequency rank
10775
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déterminée déterminer
Definition Féminin singulier de déterminé. Fixer les limites de, délimiter précisément.

Same sound, different letters: déterminée vs déterminer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.

10 ch
déterminée
10 ch
déterminer

Ear matches; page differs - déterminée and déterminer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: déterminée and déterminer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.tɛʁ.mi.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déterminée is recorded at frequency rank #8,104, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.tɛʁ.mi.ne\. déterminer is at rank #2,671, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.tɛʁ.mi.ne\.

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 10775, this pair ranks #411,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of déterminée vs déterminer

Shared letters: deimnrté. Private to "déterminée": -. Private to "déterminer": -.

"déterminée" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVV  ·  "déterminer" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déterminée" and "déterminer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déterminée" is an adjective and "déterminer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "déterminée" or "déterminer"?
"déterminer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,671 in our French list, against #8,104 for "déterminée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déterminée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déterminer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #411,705 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déterminée" and "déterminer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déterminée vs déterminera". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #411,705 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