Which to use
“trace” and “travée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,369
- “trace” frequency rank
- #39,074
- “travée” frequency rank
- 42443
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | trace | travée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Marque ou empreinte laissée sur le sol par le passage d’une personne, d’un animal ou d’un objet. | Entre deux poutres, espace rempli par des solives. |
Where the eye mixes trace and travée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. trace runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against travée's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses trace with travée
A purely visual mix-up. trace (\tʁas\) and travée (\tʁa.ve\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42443, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
trace is recorded at frequency rank #3,369, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʁas\. travée is at rank #39,074, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁa.ve\.
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 42443, this pair ranks #225,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of trace vs travée
Shared letters: aert. Private to "trace": c. Private to "travée": vé.
"trace" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "travée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- trace ← rtace · tarce · tracce · traec · trcae · trrace · ttrace
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "trace" for "travée" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "trace" or "travée" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "trace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "travée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #225,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "trace" and "travée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trance vs travée". 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 #225,567 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.