lattevsLittréWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: latte is a noun, Littré is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“latte” is a noun and “Littré” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,324
“latte” frequency rank
#48,015
“Littré” frequency rank
81339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature latte Littré
Definition Lame de bois. Nom de famille français, rendu célèbre par Émile Littré, lexicographe du dix-neuvième siècle.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set latte and Littré apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
latte
6 ch
Littré

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: latte is \lat\ while Littré is \li.tʁe\. 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 name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

latte is recorded at frequency rank #33,324, classified as anoun, pronounced \lat\. Littré is at rank #48,015, tagged as aname, pronounced \li.tʁe\.

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 81339, this pair ranks #18,963 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of latte vs Littré

Shared letters: lt. Private to "latte": ae. Private to "Littré": iré.

"latte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Littré" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lattealtte · latet · llatte · ltate

Frequency comparison

latte#33,324
Littré#48,015

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "latte" and "Littré" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "latte" is a noun and "Littré" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "latte" or "Littré"?
"latte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,324 in our French list, against #48,015 for "Littré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering latte vs Littré

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “latte”; for a name, it's “Littré”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “latte” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list