Which to use
“erre” and “étire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,429
- “erre” frequency rank
- #26,236
- “étire” frequency rank
- 53665
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | erre | étire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lettre latine R, r. | lame métallique (anciennement en pierre) montée sur un manche sur le côté le plus long et qui servait à pratiquer le butage. |
Where the eye mixes erre and étire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. erre runs 4 letters (VCCV) against étire's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: erre vs étire
A purely visual mix-up. erre (\ɛʁ\) and étire (\e.tiʁ\) 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 53665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
erre is recorded at frequency rank #27,429, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛʁ\. étire is at rank #26,236, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.tiʁ\.
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 53665, this pair ranks #139,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of erre vs étire
Shared letters: er. Private to "erre": -. Private to "étire": ité.
"erre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "étire" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- erre ← ere · erer · rere
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "erre" for "étire" ever safe?
Frequency check: "erre" vs "étire" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "erre" and "étire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "erre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "étire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "erre" and "étire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erre vs errent". 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
Confusion rank #139,226 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.