gâtéevsgâterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: gâtée is a adjective, gâter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gâtée” is an adjective and “gâter” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,984
“gâtée” frequency rank
#26,031
“gâter” frequency rank
58015
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gâtée gâter
Definition Féminin singulier de gâté. Endommager, mettre en mauvais état, abîmer en donnant une mauvaise forme ou autrement.

Same sound, different letters: gâtée vs gâter

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. gâtée (CVCVV) and gâter (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
gâtée
5 ch
gâter

Ear matches; page differs - gâtée and gâter

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: gâtée and gâter carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɡɑ.te\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gâtée is recorded at frequency rank #31,984, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡɑ.te\. gâter is at rank #26,031, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡɑ.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 58015, this pair ranks #111,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gâtée vs gâter

Shared letters: egtâ. Private to "gâtée": é. Private to "gâter": r.

"gâtée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "gâter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gâtée" and "gâter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gâtée" is an adjective and "gâter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "gâtée" vs "gâter" - which ranks higher?
"gâter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,031 in our French list, against #31,984 for "gâtée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gâtée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gâter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #111,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gâtée" and "gâter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gabe vs gâtée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #111,571 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