Which to use
“entre” is a preposition and “êtres” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #88
- “entre” frequency rank
- #3,583
- “êtres” frequency rank
- 3671
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | entre | êtres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Au milieu de ou à peu près au milieu de l’espace qui sépare des personnes ou des choses dont on parle. | Répartition des diverses parties d’une maison, c’est-à-dire l’escalier, les corridors, les pièces, etc. S’emploie surtout dans ces phrases : |
Where the eye mixes entre and êtres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: entre is \ɑ̃tʁ\ while êtres is \ɛtʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3671, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
entre is recorded at frequency rank #88, classified as aprep, pronounced \ɑ̃tʁ\. êtres is at rank #3,583, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛtʁ\.
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 3671, this pair ranks #433,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of entre vs êtres
Shared letters: ert. Private to "entre": n. Private to "êtres": sê.
"entre" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV · "êtres" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- entre ← enntre · enrte · entrre · enttre · etnre · netre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "entre" and "êtres" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "entre" or "êtres"?
What to do next
You've compared "entre" and "êtres". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "entre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "êtres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "entre" and "êtres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "êtres vs étuis". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.