Which to use
“mettre” is a verb and “miette” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #227
- “mettre” frequency rank
- #31,136
- “miette” frequency rank
- 31363
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mettre | miette |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Placer une personne, ou un animal, ou une chose dans un lieu déterminé. | Une des petites parties qui tombent du pain quand on le coupe, ou qui restent quand on a mangé. |
Where the eye mixes mettre and miette
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mettre (CVCCCV) and miette (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses mettre with miette
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mettre is \mɛtʁ\ while miette is \mjɛt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31363, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mettre is recorded at frequency rank #227, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛtʁ\. miette is at rank #31,136, 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 31363, this pair ranks #304,266 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mettre vs miette
Shared letters: emt. Private to "mettre": r. Private to "miette": i.
"mettre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "miette" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mettre" for "miette" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mettre" vs "miette" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mettre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "miette" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,266 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mettre" and "miette" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "miette 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 #304,266 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.