EscvsétéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,808
“Esc” frequency rank
#65
“été” frequency rank
32873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Esc été
Definition Échap. 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 eye mixes Esc and été

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. No shared run - shape, not overlap, is the trap.

3 ch
Esc
3 ch
été

Why the eye confuses Esc with été

A purely visual mix-up. Esc (\ɪs.ˈkeɪp\) and été (\e.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Esc is recorded at frequency rank #32,808, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɪs.ˈkeɪp\. 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 32873, this pair ranks #294,386 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Esc vs été

Shared letters: none. Private to "Esc": ces. Private to "été": .

"Esc" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "été" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Esc" and "été" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɪs.ˈkeɪp\ versus \e.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Esc" vs "été" - which ranks higher?
"été" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #65 in our French list, against #32,808 for "Esc". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Esc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "été" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #294,386 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Esc" and "été" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "EPO vs Esc". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #294,386 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