saturévsspatuleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: saturé is a adjective, spatule is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#18,873
“saturé” frequency rank
#41,544
“spatule” frequency rank
60417
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saturé spatule
Definition Qui a atteint la saturation, qui ne peut plus rien accepter de plus. Baguette de bois, de métal, d’ivoire, etc., élargie et aplatie à un bout, dont on se sert en pharmacie et en chimie.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set saturé and spatule apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
saturé
7 ch
spatule

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: saturé is \sa.ty.ʁe\ while spatule is \spa.tyl\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saturé is recorded at frequency rank #18,873, classified as anadj, pronounced \sa.ty.ʁe\. spatule is at rank #41,544, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spa.tyl\.

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 60417, this pair ranks #97,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of saturé vs spatule

Shared letters: astu. Private to "saturé": . Private to "spatule": elp.

"saturé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "spatule" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • spatulepsatule · saptule · spatlue · spattule · spatuel · spatulle · spautle · sppatule

Frequency comparison

saturé#18,873
spatule#41,544

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "saturé" and "spatule" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "saturé" is an adjective and "spatule" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "saturé" or "spatule"?
"saturé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,873 in our French list, against #41,544 for "spatule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering saturé vs spatule

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list