Which to use
“mériter” and “méritez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,260
- “mériter” frequency rank
- #19,348
- “méritez” frequency rank
- 30608
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mériter | méritez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Être digne, se rendre digne de. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de mériter. |
Same sound, different letters: mériter vs méritez
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. mériter and méritez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - mériter and méritez
This is the hard kind. mériter 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 a single letter - r in “mériter” becomes z in “méritez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mériter is recorded at frequency rank #11,260, 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 30608, this pair ranks #309,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mériter vs méritez
Shared letters: eimrté. Private to "mériter": -. Private to "méritez": z.
"mériter" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "méritez" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mériter" and "méritez" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "mériter" or "méritez"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "mériter" / "méritez". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "mériter" 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 #309,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mériter" and "méritez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "méritées vs méritez". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #309,144 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.