entréevsêtresConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#752
“entrée” frequency rank
#3,583
“êtres” frequency rank
4335
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entrée êtres
Definition Endroit par où l’on entre dans un lieu. 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 entrée and êtres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. entrée runs 6 letters (VCCCVV) against êtres's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
entrée
5 ch
êtres

Why the eye confuses entrée with êtres

A purely visual mix-up. entrée (\ɑ̃.tʁe\) and êtres (\ɛtʁ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4335, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entrée is recorded at frequency rank #752, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁe\. 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 4335, this pair ranks #431,859 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of entrée vs êtres

Shared letters: ert. Private to "entrée": né. Private to "êtres": sê.

"entrée" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV  ·  "êtres" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "entrée" for "êtres" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.tʁe\ versus \ɛtʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "entrée" or "êtres"?
"entrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #752 in our French list, against #3,583 for "êtres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "entrée" and "êtres" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "entrée" 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 #431,859 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entrée" and "êtres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "êtres vs étuis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #431,859 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