Which to use
“pâtés” and “potes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,137
- “pâtés” frequency rank
- #3,488
- “potes” frequency rank
- 35625
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pâtés | potes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de pâté. | Pluriel de pote. |
Where the eye mixes pâtés and potes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pâtés vs potes
A purely visual mix-up. pâtés (\pɑ.te\) and potes (\pɔt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pâtés is recorded at frequency rank #32,137, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑ.te\. potes is at rank #3,488, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔt\.
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 35625, this pair ranks #275,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pâtés vs potes
Shared letters: pst. Private to "pâtés": âé. Private to "potes": eo.
"pâtés" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "potes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- potes ← optes · poets · potess · pottes · ppotes · ptoes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pâtés" and "potes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pâtés" or "potes" 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 "pâtés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "potes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #275,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pâtés" and "potes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pâtés vs pètes". 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 #275,380 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.