épatévsétageWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: épaté is a adjective, étage is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#42,132
“épaté” frequency rank
#2,499
“étage” frequency rank
44631
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature épaté étage
Definition Qui est aplati, écrasé. Espace entre deux planchers au-dessus du rez-de-chaussée dans un bâtiment.

Where the eye mixes épaté and étage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. épaté and étage follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
épaté
5 ch
étage

Look-alike desk: épaté vs étage

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: épaté is \e.pa.te\ while étage is \e.taʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

épaté is recorded at frequency rank #42,132, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.pa.te\. étage is at rank #2,499, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.taʒ\.

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 44631, this pair ranks #209,002 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of épaté vs étage

Shared letters: até. Private to "épaté": p. Private to "étage": eg.

"épaté" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "étage" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "épaté" for "étage" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "épaté" is an adjective and "étage" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "épaté" vs "étage" - which ranks higher?
"étage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,499 in our French list, against #42,132 for "épaté". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "épaté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #209,002 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "épaté" and "étage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épaté vs épater". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #209,002 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