Which to use
“seconde” is an adjective and “secouée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #677
- “seconde” frequency rank
- #32,593
- “secouée” frequency rank
- 33270
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | seconde | secouée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de second. | Participe passé féminin singulier de secouer. |
Where the eye mixes seconde and secouée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between seconde and secouée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: seconde is \sə.ɡɔ̃d\ while secouée is \sə.kwe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
seconde is recorded at frequency rank #677, classified as anadj, pronounced \sə.ɡɔ̃d\. secouée is at rank #32,593, tagged as averb, pronounced \sə.kwe\.
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 33270, this pair ranks #291,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of seconde vs secouée
Shared letters: ceos. Private to "seconde": dn. Private to "secouée": ué.
"seconde" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "secouée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- seconde ← esconde · sceonde · secconde · secnode · secodne · secondde · seconed · seconnde
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "seconde" and "secouée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "seconde" or "secouée"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "seconde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "secouée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #291,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "seconde" and "secouée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "secouée vs secouent". 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 #291,761 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.