méritéevsméritezTell them apart

Which to use

“méritée” and “méritez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,805
“méritée” frequency rank
#19,348
“méritez” frequency rank
38153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature méritée méritez
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de mériter. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de mériter.

Same sound, different letters: méritée vs méritez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. méritée (CVCVCVV) and méritez (CVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
méritée
7 ch
méritez

Ear matches; page differs - méritée and méritez

This is the hard kind. méritée and méritez are pronounced identically (\me.ʁi.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

méritée is recorded at frequency rank #18,805, classified as averb, pronounced \me.ʁi.te\. méritez is at rank #19,348, tagged as averb, pronounced \me.ʁi.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 38153, this pair ranks #257,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of méritée vs méritez

Shared letters: eimrté. Private to "méritée": -. Private to "méritez": z.

"méritée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "méritez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "méritée" and "méritez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\me.ʁi.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "méritée" or "méritez" show up more?
"méritée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,805 in our French list, against #19,348 for "méritez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "méritée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "méritez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,288 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "méritée" and "méritez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "méritées vs méritez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #257,288 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