frotter vs frottis, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#13,600
“frotter” frequency rank: #43,954
“frottis” frequency rank: 57554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	frotter	frottis
Definition	Passer une chose sur une autre à quelques ou plusieurs reprises, en appuyant, en pressant.	Synonyme de frottement.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set frotter and frottis apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

frotter

7 ch

frottis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: frotter is \fʁɔ.te\ while frottis is \fʁɔ.ti\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frotter is recorded at frequency rank #13,600, classified as averb, pronounced \fʁɔ.te\. frottis is at rank #43,954, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁɔ.ti\.

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 57554, this pair ranks #114,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frotter vs frottis

Shared letters: fort. Private to "frotter": e. Private to "frottis": is.

"frotter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "frottis" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

frotter ← ffrotter · fortter · froter · frotetr · frotterr · frottre · frrotter · frtoter
frottis ← ffrottis · forttis · frotis · frotits · frottiss · frottsi · frrottis · frtotis

Frequency comparison

frotter#13,600

frottis#43,954

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "frotter" and "frottis" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frotter" is a verb and "frottis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "frotter" or "frottis"?

"frotter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,600 in our French list, against #43,954 for "frottis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering frotter vs frottis

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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