LittrévslotteWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,015
“Littré” frequency rank
#36,474
“lotte” frequency rank
84489
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Littré lotte
Definition Nom de famille français, rendu célèbre par Émile Littré, lexicographe du dix-neuvième siècle. Poisson de rivière, et des lacs européens, à plusieurs barbillons, appartenant aux gadiformes, de nom scientifique Lota lota.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
Littré
5 ch
lotte

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Littré is \li.tʁe\ while lotte is \lɔt\. 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Littré is recorded at frequency rank #48,015, classified as aname, pronounced \li.tʁe\. lotte is at rank #36,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔt\.

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 84489, this pair ranks #12,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Littré vs lotte

Shared letters: lt. Private to "Littré": iré. Private to "lotte": eo.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lottellotte · lote · lotet · ltote · oltte

Frequency comparison

Littré#48,015
lotte#36,474

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Littré" and "lotte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Littré" is a name and "lotte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Littré" or "lotte"?
"lotte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,474 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 Littré vs lotte

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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