ébatsvsétatsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,642
“ébats” frequency rank
#563
“états” frequency rank
33205
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ébats états
Definition Pluriel de ébat. Pluriel de état.

Where the eye mixes ébats and états

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ébats and états follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
ébats
5 ch
états

Look-alike desk: ébats vs états

A purely visual mix-up. ébats (\e.ba\) and états (\e.ta\) 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 a single letter - b in “ébats” becomes t in “états”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ébats is recorded at frequency rank #32,642, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ba\. états is at rank #563, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ta\.

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 33205, this pair ranks #292,183 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ébats vs états

Shared letters: asté. Private to "ébats": b. Private to "états": -.

"ébats" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "états" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ébats" and "états" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.ba\ versus \e.ta\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ébats" vs "états" - which ranks higher?
"états" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #563 in our French list, against #32,642 for "ébats". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ébats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "états" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #292,183 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ébats" and "états" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ébats vs édits". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #292,183 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