abattuvsabattuesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,918
“abattu” frequency rank
#41,098
“abattues” frequency rank
48016
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abattu abattues
Definition Affaibli physiquement. Féminin pluriel de abattu.

Same sound, different letters: abattu vs abattues

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

6 ch
abattu
8 ch
abattues

Ear matches; page differs - abattu and abattues

This is the hard kind. abattu and abattues are pronounced identically (\a.ba.ty\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “abattu” sits inside “abattues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48016, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abattu is recorded at frequency rank #6,918, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ba.ty\. abattues is at rank #41,098, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.ba.ty\.

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 48016, this pair ranks #182,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abattu vs abattues

Shared letters: abtu. Private to "abattu": -. Private to "abattues": es.

"abattu" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "abattues" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abattu ← aabttu · abatu · abatut · abbattu · abtatu · baattu
  • abattues ← aabttues · abatteus · abattuess · abattuse · abatues · abatutes · abbattues · abtatues

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abattu" and "abattues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.ba.ty\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "abattu" vs "abattues" - which ranks higher?
"abattu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,918 in our French list, against #41,098 for "abattues". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abattu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "abattues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abattu" and "abattues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abattue vs abattues". 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 #182,320 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