étévseueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: été is a noun, eue is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“été” is a noun and “eue” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#65
“été” frequency rank
#12,376
“eue” frequency rank
12441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature été eue
Definition 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. Participe passé féminin singulier de avoir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set été and eue apart are highlighted. They share no common letter run, the confusion here is by sound, not by sight.

3 ch
été
3 ch
eue

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: été is \e.te\ while eue is \y\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

été is recorded at frequency rank #65, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.te\. eue is at rank #12,376, tagged as averb, pronounced \y\.

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 12441, this pair ranks #405,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of été vs eue

Shared letters: none. Private to "été": . Private to "eue": eu.

"été" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "eue" · 3 letters · shape VVV

Frequency comparison

été#65
eue#12,376

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "été" and "eue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "été" is a noun and "eue" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "été" or "eue"?
"été" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #65 in our French list, against #12,376 for "eue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering été vs eue

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “été”; for a verb, it's “eue”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “été” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list