trèflevstreizeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: trèfle is a noun, treize is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#22,449
“trèfle” frequency rank
#6,567
“treize” frequency rank
29016
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature trèfle treize
Definition Nom usuel des plantes du genre Trifolium, plantes herbacées de la famille des Fabaceae (Fabacées), dont les feuilles sont formées de 3 (rarement 4 ou plus) folioles rondes. Douze plus un, adjectif numéral cardinal correspondant au nombre 13.

Where the eye mixes trèfle and treize

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

6 ch
trèfle
6 ch
treize

Look-alike desk: trèfle vs treize

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: trèfle is \tʁɛfl\ while treize is \tʁɛz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29016, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

trèfle is recorded at frequency rank #22,449, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʁɛfl\. treize is at rank #6,567, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tʁɛz\.

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 29016, this pair ranks #319,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of trèfle vs treize

Shared letters: ert. Private to "trèfle": flè. Private to "treize": iz.

"trèfle" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "treize" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • treizerteize · terize · treiez · treizze · trezie · trieze · trreize · ttreize

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "trèfle" and "treize" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "trèfle" is a noun and "treize" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "trèfle" vs "treize" - which ranks higher?
"treize" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,567 in our French list, against #22,449 for "trèfle". 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 "trèfle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "treize" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #319,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "trèfle" and "treize" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trèfle vs truelle". 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 #319,258 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