triervstriésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“trier” and “triés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,528
“trier” frequency rank
#34,791
“triés” frequency rank
50319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature trier triés
Definition Séparer ce que l'on souhaite garder et ce que l'on souhaite jeter. Participe passé masculin pluriel de trier.

Same sound, different letters: trier vs triés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. trier and triés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
trier
5 ch
triés

Homophone desk: trier vs triés

This is the hard kind. trier and triés are pronounced identically (\tʁi.je\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

trier is recorded at frequency rank #15,528, classified as averb, pronounced \tʁi.je\. triés is at rank #34,791, tagged as averb, pronounced \tʁi.je\.

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 50319, this pair ranks #163,584 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of trier vs triés

Shared letters: irt. Private to "trier": e. Private to "triés": sé.

"trier" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "triés" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • trier ← rtier · treir · trierr · trire · trrier · ttrier

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "trier" and "triés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\tʁi.je\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "trier" vs "triés" - which ranks higher?
"trier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,528 in our French list, against #34,791 for "triés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "trier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "triés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #163,584 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "trier" and "triés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "triés vs trônes". 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 #163,584 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