Which to use
“quête” is a noun and “quote” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,179
- “quête” frequency rank
- #20,831
- “quote” frequency rank
- 25010
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quête | quote |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action par laquelle on cherche. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de quoter. |
Where the eye mixes quête and quote
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. quête and quote follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses quête with quote
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quête is \kɛt\ while quote is \kwot\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - ê in “quête” becomes o in “quote”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25010, 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\. quote is at rank #20,831, tagged as averb, pronounced \kwot\.
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 25010, this pair ranks #343,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of quête vs quote
Shared letters: eqtu. Private to "quête": ê. Private to "quote": o.
"quête" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "quote" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- quote ← qoute · qquote · quoet · quotte · qutoe · uqote
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "quête" for "quote" ever safe?
Frequency check: "quête" vs "quote" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "quête" and "quote" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "quête" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "quote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #343,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quête" and "quote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quite vs quote". 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 #343,300 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.