Which to use
“mettes” and “miettes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,626
- “mettes” frequency rank
- #14,737
- “miettes” frequency rank
- 49363
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mettes | miettes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de mette. | Peu de chose, en particulier quand avant il y avait beaucoup. |
Where the eye mixes mettes and miettes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. mettes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against miettes's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mettes vs miettes
A purely visual mix-up. mettes (\mɛt\) and miettes (\mjɛt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49363, 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\. miettes is at rank #14,737, tagged as anoun, pronounced \mjɛt\.
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 49363, this pair ranks #171,305 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mettes vs miettes
Shared letters: emst. Private to "mettes": -. Private to "miettes": i.
"mettes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "miettes" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mettes" and "miettes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mettes" or "miettes" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mettes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "miettes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,305 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mettes" and "miettes" 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 #171,305 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.