méritéesvsméritezTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,674
“méritées” frequency rank
#19,348
“méritez” frequency rank
68022
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Same sound, different letters: méritées vs méritez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. méritées runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against méritez's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
méritées
7 ch
méritez

Homophone desk: méritées vs méritez

This is the hard kind. méritées 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

méritées is recorded at frequency rank #48,674, 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 68022, this pair ranks #60,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of méritées vs méritez

Shared letters: eimrté. Private to "méritées": s. Private to "méritez": z.

"méritées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "méritez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "méritées" 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.
Frequency check: "méritées" vs "méritez" - which ranks higher?
"méritez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,348 in our French list, against #48,674 for "méritées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"méritées" and "méritez" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "méritées" 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 #60,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "méritées" and "méritez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "méritées vs méritons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #60,941 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