tranchévstranchéeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: tranché is a adjective, tranchée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tranché” is an adjective and “tranchée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,277
“tranché” frequency rank
#13,285
“tranchée” frequency rank
28562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tranché tranchée
Definition Se dit d'un membre sectionné de façon nette à la suite de l’action d’une lame. Ouverture, excavation longue et plus ou moins profonde pratiquée dans la terre.

Same sound, different letters: tranché vs tranchée

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. tranché runs 7 letters (CCVCCCV) against tranchée's 8 (CCVCCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
tranché
8 ch
tranchée

Same sound, different spelling - tranché / tranchée

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: tranché and tranchée carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tʁɑ̃.ʃe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “tranché” sits inside “tranchée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tranché is recorded at frequency rank #15,277, classified as anadj, pronounced \tʁɑ̃.ʃe\. tranchée is at rank #13,285, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁɑ̃.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 28562, this pair ranks #322,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of tranché vs tranchée

Shared letters: achnrté. Private to "tranché": -. Private to "tranchée": e.

"tranché" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV  ·  "tranchée" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tranché" and "tranchée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tranché" is an adjective and "tranchée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "tranché" or "tranchée"?
"tranchée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,285 in our French list, against #15,277 for "tranché". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"tranché" and "tranchée" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tranché" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tranchée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #322,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tranché" and "tranchée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trance vs tranché". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #322,019 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