jetéevsjettesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#13,823
“jetée” frequency rank
#32,456
“jettes” frequency rank
46279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jetée jettes
Definition Amas de pierres, de cailloux et d’autres matériaux jetés à côté du canal qui forme l’entrée d’un port, fortement maçonnés et ordinairement soutenus de pilotis, pour servir à rompre l’impétuosité des vagues. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de jeter.

Where the eye mixes jetée and jettes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
jetée
6 ch
jettes

Why the eye confuses jetée with jettes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: jetée is \ʒə.te\ while jettes is \ʒɛt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jetée is recorded at frequency rank #13,823, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒə.te\. jettes is at rank #32,456, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʒɛt\.

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 46279, this pair ranks #196,175 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of jetée vs jettes

Shared letters: ejt. Private to "jetée": é. Private to "jettes": s.

"jetée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "jettes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jettesejttes · jetets · jettess · jettse · jjettes · jtetes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "jetée" for "jettes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "jetée" is a noun and "jettes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "jetée" or "jettes"?
"jetée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,823 in our French list, against #32,456 for "jettes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "jetée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jettes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,175 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jetée" and "jettes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jettera vs jettes". 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 #196,175 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