testévstêtesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#5,821
“testé” frequency rank
#3,048
“têtes” frequency rank
8869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature testé têtes
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de tester. Pluriel de tête.

Where the eye mixes testé and têtes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
testé
5 ch
têtes

Visual trap between testé and têtes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: testé is \tɛs.te\ while têtes is \tɛːt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8869, 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\. têtes is at rank #3,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛːt\.

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 8869, this pair ranks #418,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of testé vs têtes

Shared letters: est. Private to "testé": é. Private to "têtes": ê.

"testé" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "têtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "testé" for "têtes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "testé" is a verb and "têtes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "testé" or "têtes"?
"têtes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,048 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "testé" and "têtes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "testé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "têtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "testé" and "têtes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ténue vs testé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #418,595 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