Which to use
“essaye” and “essuyé” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,174
- “essaye” frequency rank
- #24,580
- “essuyé” frequency rank
- 26754
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essaye | essuyé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. | Participe passé masculin singulier de essuyer. |
Where the eye mixes essaye and essuyé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. essaye and essuyé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between essaye and essuyé
A purely visual mix-up. essaye (\e.sɛj\) and essuyé (\e.sɥi.je\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26754, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essaye is recorded at frequency rank #2,174, classified as averb, pronounced \e.sɛj\. essuyé is at rank #24,580, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɥi.je\.
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 26754, this pair ranks #333,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of essaye vs essuyé
Shared letters: esy. Private to "essaye": a. Private to "essuyé": ué.
"essaye" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV · "essuyé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- essaye ← esasye · esaye · essaey · essayye · essyae · sesaye
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "essaye" and "essuyé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "essaye" vs "essuyé" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "essaye" and "essuyé" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "essaye" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essuyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #333,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essaye" and "essuyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essay vs essuyé". 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 #333,042 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.