Which to use
“dicte” is a verb and “dictée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,979
- “dicte” frequency rank
- #19,806
- “dictée” frequency rank
- 40785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dicte | dictée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dicter. | Action de dicter. |
Where the eye mixes dicte and dictée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dicte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against dictée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: dicte vs dictée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dicte is \dikt\ while dictée is \dik.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dicte is recorded at frequency rank #20,979, classified as averb, pronounced \dikt\. dictée is at rank #19,806, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dik.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 40785, this pair ranks #237,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dicte vs dictée
Shared letters: cdeit. Private to "dicte": -. Private to "dictée": é.
"dicte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "dictée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dicte ← dcite · ddicte · diccte · dicet · dictte · ditce · idcte
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dicte" and "dictée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dicte" vs "dictée" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dicte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dictée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #237,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dicte" and "dictée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs dicte". 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 #237,908 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.