écrirevsécritesConfusable pair

Quick tell: écrire is a verb, écrites is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,154
“écrire” frequency rank
#7,773
“écrites” frequency rank
8927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrire écrites
Definition Créer une représentation de mots à l’aide de lettres et de symboles, par le biais d’un média. Féminin pluriel de écrit.

Where the eye mixes écrire and écrites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
écrire
7 ch
écrites

Why the eye confuses écrire with écrites

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écrire is \e.kʁiʁ\ while écrites is \e.kʁit\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrire is recorded at frequency rank #1,154, classified as averb, pronounced \e.kʁiʁ\. écrites is at rank #7,773, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.kʁit\.

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 8927, this pair ranks #418,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écrire vs écrites

Shared letters: ceiré. Private to "écrire": -. Private to "écrites": st.

"écrire" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "écrites" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écrire" for "écrites" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écrire" is a verb and "écrites" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "écrire" or "écrites" show up more?
"écrire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,154 in our French list, against #7,773 for "écrites". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "écrire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écrites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écrire" and "écrites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écriteau vs écrites". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #418,387 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