Which to use
“tache” and “trachée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,314
- “tache” frequency rank
- #38,074
- “trachée” frequency rank
- 46388
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tache | trachée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Souillure sur quelque chose ; marque qui salit. | Tube délié, petit vaisseau des insectes et des plantes, formé d’un fil élastique contourné en spirale. |
Where the eye mixes tache and trachée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. tache runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against trachée's 7 (CCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tache with trachée
A purely visual mix-up. tache (\taʃ\) and trachée (\tʁa.ʃe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tache is recorded at frequency rank #8,314, classified as anoun, pronounced \taʃ\. trachée is at rank #38,074, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.ʃe\.
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 46388, this pair ranks #195,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tache vs trachée
Shared letters: aceht. Private to "tache": -. Private to "trachée": ré.
"tache" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "trachée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- tache ← atche · tacche · taceh · tachhe · tahce · tcahe · ttache
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tache" and "trachée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "tache" or "trachée"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tache" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "trachée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #195,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tache" and "trachée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tâchez vs trachée". 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 #195,359 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.