tranchévstrancherWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,277
“tranché” frequency rank
#11,143
“trancher” frequency rank
26420
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tranché trancher
Definition Se dit d'un membre sectionné de façon nette à la suite de l’action d’une lame. Couper net ; séparer en coupant.

Same sound, different letters: tranché vs trancher

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. tranché runs 7 letters (CCVCCCV) against trancher's 8 (CCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
tranché
8 ch
trancher

Ear matches; page differs - tranché and trancher

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: tranché and trancher carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tʁɑ̃.ʃe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26420, 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\. trancher is at rank #11,143, tagged as averb, 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 26420, this pair ranks #335,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tranché vs trancher

Shared letters: achnrt. Private to "tranché": é. Private to "trancher": e.

"tranché" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV  ·  "trancher" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • trancher ← rtancher · tarncher · tracnher · tranccher · trancehr · trancherr · tranchher · tranchre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tranché" and "trancher" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tranché" is an adjective and "trancher" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "tranché" or "trancher" show up more?
"trancher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,143 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 "trancher" 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 "trancher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #335,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tranché" and "trancher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trance vs tranché". 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 #335,119 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