Which to use
“mettes” is a noun and “mettez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,626
- “mettes” frequency rank
- #3,779
- “mettez” frequency rank
- 38405
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mettes | mettez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mette. | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de mettre. |
Where the eye mixes mettes and mettez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mettes and mettez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses mettes with mettez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mettes is \mɛt\ while mettez is \mɛ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “mettes” becomes z in “mettez”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mettes is recorded at frequency rank #34,626, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɛt\. mettez is at rank #3,779, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɛ.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 38405, this pair ranks #255,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mettes vs mettez
Shared letters: emt. Private to "mettes": s. Private to "mettez": z.
"mettes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "mettez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mettes" for "mettez" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "mettes" or "mettez" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "mettes" and "mettez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "mettes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mettez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #255,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mettes" and "mettez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mettes 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 #255,473 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.