distinguéevsdistinguerWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#25,618
“distinguée” frequency rank
#5,859
“distinguer” frequency rank
31477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature distinguée distinguer
Definition Féminin singulier de distingué. Discerner par l’un des sens.

Same sound, different letters: distinguée vs distinguer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. distinguée (CVCCVCCVVV) and distinguer (CVCCVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
distinguée
10 ch
distinguer

Same sound, different spelling - distinguée / distinguer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: distinguée and distinguer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \dis.tɛ̃.ɡe\. 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 31477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

distinguée is recorded at frequency rank #25,618, classified as anadj, pronounced \dis.tɛ̃.ɡe\. distinguer is at rank #5,859, tagged as averb, pronounced \dis.tɛ̃.ɡe\.

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 31477, this pair ranks #303,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of distinguée vs distinguer

Shared letters: deginstu. Private to "distinguée": é. Private to "distinguer": r.

"distinguée" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVV  ·  "distinguer" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • distinguer ← ddistinguer · disitnguer · disstinguer · distignuer · distingeur · distingguer · distinguerr · distingure

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "distinguée" and "distinguer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "distinguée" is an adjective and "distinguer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "distinguée" or "distinguer"?
"distinguer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,859 in our French list, against #25,618 for "distinguée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "distinguée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "distinguer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #303,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "distinguée" and "distinguer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "distingua vs distinguée". 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 #303,552 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