documentevsdocumenterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“documente” and “documenter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,987
“documente” frequency rank
#24,547
“documenter” frequency rank
69534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature documente documenter
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de documenter. Appuyer de documents.

Where the eye mixes documente and documenter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
documente
10 ch
documenter

Why the eye confuses documente with documenter

A purely visual mix-up. documente (\dɔ.ky.mɑ̃t\) and documenter (\dɔ.ky.mɑ̃.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “documente” sits inside “documenter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

documente is recorded at frequency rank #44,987, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔ.ky.mɑ̃t\. documenter is at rank #24,547, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔ.ky.mɑ̃.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 69534, this pair ranks #54,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of documente vs documenter

Shared letters: cdemnotu. Private to "documente": -. Private to "documenter": r.

"documente" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV  ·  "documenter" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • documentedcoumente · ddocumente · doccumente · docmuente · docuemnte · documenet · documennte · documentte
  • documenterdcoumenter · ddocumenter · doccumenter · docmuenter · docuemnter · documenetr · documennter · documenterr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "documente" for "documenter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.ky.mɑ̃t\ versus \dɔ.ky.mɑ̃.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "documente" vs "documenter" - which ranks higher?
"documenter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,547 in our French list, against #44,987 for "documente". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "documente" and "documenter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "documente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "documenter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "documente" and "documenter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "documente vs documentées". 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 #54,742 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