dictéesvsdicterConfusable pair

Quick tell: dictées is a noun, dicter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dictées” is a noun and “dicter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,211
“dictées” frequency rank
#20,113
“dicter” frequency rank
53324
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dictées dicter
Definition Pluriel de dictée. Prononcer plus ou moins lentement et à haute voix ce qu'on fait écrire au fur et à mesure par quelqu'un.

Same sound, different letters: dictées vs dicter

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. dictées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against dicter's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
dictées
6 ch
dicter

Same sound, different spelling - dictées / dicter

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: dictées and dicter carry the same recorded pronunciation, \dik.te\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53324, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dictées is recorded at frequency rank #33,211, classified as anoun, pronounced \dik.te\. dicter is at rank #20,113, tagged as averb, 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 53324, this pair ranks #141,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dictées vs dicter

Shared letters: cdeit. Private to "dictées": sé. Private to "dicter": r.

"dictées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "dicter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dicter ← dciter · ddicter · diccter · dicetr · dicterr · dictre · dictter · ditcer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dictées" and "dicter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dictées" is a noun and "dicter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dictées" vs "dicter" - which ranks higher?
"dicter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,113 in our French list, against #33,211 for "dictées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dictées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dicter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #141,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dictées" and "dicter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dictées vs dictent". 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 #141,510 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