Which to use
“quête” and “quêtes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,179
- “quête” frequency rank
- #25,785
- “quêtes” frequency rank
- 29964
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quête | quêtes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action par laquelle on cherche. | Pluriel de quête. |
Same sound, different letters: quête vs quêtes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. quête runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against quêtes's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - quête and quêtes
This is the hard kind. quête and quêtes are pronounced identically (\kɛt\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “quête” sits inside “quêtes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29964, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
quête is recorded at frequency rank #4,179, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɛt\. quêtes is at rank #25,785, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɛt\.
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 29964, this pair ranks #313,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of quête vs quêtes
Shared letters: eqtuê. Private to "quête": -. Private to "quêtes": s.
"quête" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "quêtes" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "quête" and "quêtes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "quête" or "quêtes" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "quête" / "quêtes". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "quête" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quêtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #313,338 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quête" and "quêtes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quêtes vs quite". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #313,338 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.