distribuéevsdistribuerConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#19,810
“distribuée” frequency rank
#8,378
“distribuer” frequency rank
28188
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature distribuée distribuer
Definition Féminin singulier de distribué. Répartir une chose entre plusieurs personnes ou plusieurs endroits.

Same sound, different letters: distribuée vs distribuer

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

10 ch
distribuée
10 ch
distribuer

Same sound, different spelling - distribuée / distribuer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: distribuée and distribuer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \dis.tʁi.bɥe\. 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 28188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

distribuée is recorded at frequency rank #19,810, classified as anadj, pronounced \dis.tʁi.bɥe\. distribuer is at rank #8,378, tagged as averb, pronounced \dis.tʁi.bɥe\.

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 28188, this pair ranks #324,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of distribuée vs distribuer

Shared letters: bdeirstu. Private to "distribuée": é. Private to "distribuer": -.

"distribuée" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVV  ·  "distribuer" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • distribuer ← ddistribuer · disrtibuer · disstribuer · distirbuer · distrbiuer · distribbuer · distribeur · distribuerr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "distribuée" and "distribuer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "distribuée" is an adjective and "distribuer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "distribuée" or "distribuer" show up more?
"distribuer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,378 in our French list, against #19,810 for "distribuée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"distribuée" and "distribuer" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "distribuée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "distribuer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #324,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "distribuée" and "distribuer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "distribuée vs distribuent". 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 #324,373 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