mutévsmuterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: muté is a adjective, muter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#24,292
“muté” frequency rank
#42,475
“muter” frequency rank
66767
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature muté muter
Definition Se dit d’un vin dont la fermentation a été stoppée par l’ajout d’alcool ou d'acide sulfureux lui permettant ainsi de garder des sucres résiduels. Changer de forme, voire évoluer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set muté and muter apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
muté
5 ch
muter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: muté and muter carry the same recorded pronunciation, \my.te\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66767, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

muté is recorded at frequency rank #24,292, classified as anadj, pronounced \my.te\. muter is at rank #42,475, tagged as averb, pronounced \my.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 66767, this pair ranks #66,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of muté vs muter

Shared letters: mtu. Private to "muté": é. Private to "muter": er.

"muté" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "muter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mutermmuter · mtuer · muetr · muterr · mutre · mutter · umter

Frequency comparison

muté#24,292
muter#42,475

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "muté" and "muter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "muté" is an adjective and "muter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "muté" or "muter"?
"muté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,292 in our French list, against #42,475 for "muter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering muté vs muter

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “muté”; for a verb, it's “muter”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “muté” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list