Which to use
“en” is a preposition and “été” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9
- “en” frequency rank
- #65
- “été” frequency rank
- 74
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | en | été |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Préposition utilisée après certains verbes. | La plus chaude des quatre saisons de l’année. Dans l’hémisphère nord, l’été astronomique s’étend du 7 mai au 7 août, le solstice d’été représentant le milieu de l’été. L’été météorologique, qui comprend les mois les plus chauds de l’année, comprend les mois de juin, juillet et août. L’été calendaire français, enfin, s’étend du 21 juin (solstice d’été) au 22 septembre (équinoxe d’automne). Dans l’hémisphère sud, ce découpage correspond à la saison d’hiver. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set en and été apart are highlighted. They share no common letter run, the confusion here is by sound, not by sight.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
en and été form a confusable pair in the French index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
en is recorded at frequency rank #9, classified as aprep, pronounced \ɑ̃\. été is at rank #65, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.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 74, this pair ranks #440,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "en" and "été" be used interchangeably?
Remembering en vs été
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a preposition, it's “en”; for a noun, it's “été”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “en” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable