reste vs restées, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#205
“reste” frequency rank: #14,550
“restées” frequency rank: 14755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	reste	restées
Definition	Ce qui demeure d’un tout, d’une plus grande quantité ; ce qui subsiste d’une chose passée, tant au sens physique qu’au sens moral.	Féminin pluriel de resté.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set reste and restées apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

reste

7 ch

restées

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reste is \ʁɛst\ while restées is \ʁɛs.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 14755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reste is recorded at frequency rank #205, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛst\. restées is at rank #14,550, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛs.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 14755, this pair ranks #395,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reste vs restées

Shared letters: erst. Private to "reste": -. Private to "restées": é.

"reste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "restées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

reste ← erste · resste · restte · retse · rreste · rsete

Frequency comparison

reste#205

restées#14,550

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reste" and "restées" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reste" is a noun and "restées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "reste" or "restées"?

"reste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #205 in our French list, against #14,550 for "restées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering reste vs restées

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “reste”; for an adjective, it's “restées”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “reste” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable