Which to use
“ôté” is a verb and “oy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,318
- “ôté” frequency rank
- #41,948
- “oy” frequency rank
- 73266
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ôté | oy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe ôter. | Prime. |
Where the eye mixes ôté and oy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. No shared run - shape, not overlap, is the trap.
Visual trap between ôté and oy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ôté is \o.te\ while oy is \ɔj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73266, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ôté is recorded at frequency rank #31,318, classified as averb, pronounced \o.te\. oy is at rank #41,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔj\.
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 73266, this pair ranks #41,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ôté vs oy
Shared letters: none. Private to "ôté": téô. Private to "oy": oy.
"ôté" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "oy" · 2 letters · shape VV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ôté" and "oy" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "ôté" or "oy" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ôté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #41,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ôté" and "oy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs oy". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #41,067 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.