verrevsvertsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,500
“verre” frequency rank
#3,578
“verts” frequency rank
5078
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verre verts
Definition Matière solide, amorphe, transparente, dure et fragile, élaborée à l’aide de sable siliceux, mêlée de calcaire, de soude ou de potasse, avec laquelle on fabrique des produits plats, comme les vitrages, des produits creux, comme la gobeleterie, les bouteilles, etc., et des fibres à l’usage de la construction. Masculin pluriel de vert.

Same sound, different letters: verre vs verts

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.

5 ch
verre
5 ch
verts

Ear matches; page differs - verre and verts

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: verre and verts carry the same recorded pronunciation, \vɛʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5078, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verre is recorded at frequency rank #1,500, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁ\. verts is at rank #3,578, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vɛʁ\.

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 5078, this pair ranks #429,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of verre vs verts

Shared letters: erv. Private to "verre": -. Private to "verts": st.

"verre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "verts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verreevrre · vere · verer · vrere · vverre
  • vertsevrts · verrts · verst · vertss · vertts · vetrs · vrets · vverts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "verre" for "verts" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "verre" is a noun and "verts" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "verre" vs "verts" - which ranks higher?
"verre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,500 in our French list, against #3,578 for "verts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "verre" / "verts". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #429,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verre" and "verts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verts vs veufs". 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 #429,960 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