testévstestsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: testé is a verb, tests is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“testé” is a verb and “tests” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,821
“testé” frequency rank
#2,968
“tests” frequency rank
8789
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature testé tests
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de tester. Pluriel de test.

Where the eye mixes testé and tests

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
testé
5 ch
tests

Visual trap between testé and tests

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: testé is \tɛs.te\ while tests is \tɛst\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - é in “testé” becomes s in “tests”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8789, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

testé is recorded at frequency rank #5,821, classified as averb, pronounced \tɛs.te\. tests is at rank #2,968, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛst\.

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 8789, this pair ranks #418,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of testé vs tests

Shared letters: est. Private to "testé": é. Private to "tests": -.

"testé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tests" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • testsetsts · tessts · testss · testts · tetss · tsets · ttests

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "testé" and "tests" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "testé" is a verb and "tests" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "testé" or "tests" show up more?
"tests" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,968 in our French list, against #5,821 for "testé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "testé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tests" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "testé" and "tests" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ténue vs testé". 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 #418,838 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