pètesvsprêtéeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pètes is a noun, prêtée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pètes” is a noun and “prêtée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,737
“pètes” frequency rank
#33,853
“prêtée” frequency rank
82590
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pètes prêtée
Definition Pluriel de pète. Féminin singulier de prêté.

Where the eye mixes pètes and prêtée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pètes runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against prêtée's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pètes
6 ch
prêtée

Visual trap between pètes and prêtée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pètes is \pɛt\ while prêtée is \pʁɛ.te\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pètes is recorded at frequency rank #48,737, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛt\. prêtée is at rank #33,853, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɛ.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 82590, this pair ranks #16,427 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pètes vs prêtée

Shared letters: ept. Private to "pètes": sè. Private to "prêtée": réê.

"pètes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "prêtée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pètes" and "prêtée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pètes" is a noun and "prêtée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pètes" vs "prêtée" - which ranks higher?
"prêtée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,853 in our French list, against #48,737 for "pètes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pètes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prêtée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,427 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pètes" and "prêtée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peep vs pètes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #16,427 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list