écriteauvsécritesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#43,225
“écriteau” frequency rank
#7,773
“écrites” frequency rank
50998
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écriteau écrites
Definition Inscription en grosses lettres, qu’on met sur un papier, sur du bois, sur de la toile, pour appeler l’attention du public. Féminin pluriel de écrit.

Where the eye mixes écriteau and écrites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
écriteau
7 ch
écrites

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écriteau is \e.kʁi.to\ 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50998, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écriteau is recorded at frequency rank #43,225, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁi.to\. 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 50998, this pair ranks #158,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écriteau vs écrites

Shared letters: ceirté. Private to "écriteau": au. Private to "écrites": s.

"écriteau" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVV  ·  "écrites" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écriteau" and "écrites" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écriteau" is a noun and "écrites" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "écriteau" or "écrites"?
"écrites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,773 in our French list, against #43,225 for "écriteau". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list