Which to use
“maître” is a noun and “mettre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #946
- “maître” frequency rank
- #227
- “mettre” frequency rank
- 1173
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maître | mettre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne qui exerce son autorité. | Placer une personne, ou un animal, ou une chose dans un lieu déterminé. |
Same sound, different letters: maître vs mettre
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. maître (CVVCCV) and mettre (CVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Same sound, different spelling - maître / mettre
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: maître and mettre carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mɛtʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, 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 1173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maître is recorded at frequency rank #946, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛtʁ\. mettre is at rank #227, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɛtʁ\.
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 1173, this pair ranks #438,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of maître vs mettre
Shared letters: emrt. Private to "maître": aî. Private to "mettre": -.
"maître" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "mettre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mettre ← emttre · metre · metrte · metter · mettrre · mmettre · mtetre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maître" and "mettre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maître" or "mettre" show up more?
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 "maître" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mettre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maître" and "mettre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maître vs meutre". 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 #438,492 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.