mettevsmuettesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: mette is a verb, muettes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mette” is a verb and “muettes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,111
“mette” frequency rank
#48,672
“muettes” frequency rank
54783
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mette muettes
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de mettre. Féminin pluriel de muet.

Where the eye mixes mette and muettes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mette runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against muettes's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
mette
7 ch
muettes

Why the eye confuses mette with muettes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mette is \mɛt\ while muettes is \mɥɛt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mette is recorded at frequency rank #6,111, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛt\. muettes is at rank #48,672, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɥɛt\.

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 54783, this pair ranks #131,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mette vs muettes

Shared letters: emt. Private to "mette": -. Private to "muettes": su.

"mette" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "muettes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mette ← emtte · mete · metet · mmette · mtete
  • muettes ← meuttes · mmuettes · muetes · muetets · muettess · muettse · mutetes · umettes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mette" and "muettes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mette" is a verb and "muettes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mette" vs "muettes" - which ranks higher?
"mette" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,111 in our French list, against #48,672 for "muettes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mette" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muettes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mette" and "muettes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mottes vs muettes". 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 #131,702 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