séchésvssketchesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#40,039
“séchés” frequency rank
#33,467
“sketches” frequency rank
73506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature séchés sketches
Definition Masculin pluriel de séché. Pluriel de sketch.

Where the eye mixes séchés and sketches

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. séchés runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against sketches's 8 (CCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
séchés
8 ch
sketches

Visual trap between séchés and sketches

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: séchés is \se.ʃe\ while sketches is \skɛtʃ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

séchés is recorded at frequency rank #40,039, classified as anadj, pronounced \se.ʃe\. sketches is at rank #33,467, tagged as anoun, pronounced \skɛtʃ\.

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 73506, this pair ranks #40,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of séchés vs sketches

Shared letters: chs. Private to "séchés": é. Private to "sketches": ekt.

"séchés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sketches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sketches ← ksetches · sektches · skecthes · sketcches · sketcehs · sketchess · sketchhes · sketchse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "séchés" and "sketches" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "séchés" is an adjective and "sketches" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "séchés" or "sketches" show up more?
"sketches" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,467 in our French list, against #40,039 for "séchés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "séchés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sketches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "séchés" and "sketches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "séchés vs socles". 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 #40,245 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