écartévsécartsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,691
“écarté” frequency rank
#9,418
“écarts” frequency rank
21109
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écarté écarts
Definition Jeu de cartes qui se joue à deux et où l’on peut écarter tout ou partie des cartes. Pluriel de écart.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set écarté and écarts apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
écarté
6 ch
écarts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. écarté (\e.kaʁ.te\) and écarts (\e.kaʁ\) 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 - é in “écarté” becomes s in “écarts”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écarté is recorded at frequency rank #11,691, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kaʁ.te\. écarts is at rank #9,418, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.kaʁ\.

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 21109, this pair ranks #364,809 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écarté vs écarts

Shared letters: acrté. Private to "écarté": -. Private to "écarts": s.

"écarté" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "écarts" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCC

Frequency comparison

écarté#11,691
écarts#9,418

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écarté" and "écarts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.kaʁ.te\ versus \e.kaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "écarté" or "écarts"?
"écarts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,418 in our French list, against #11,691 for "écarté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering écarté vs écarts

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “écarté” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list