accidentel vs accidentelles

Which to use

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

#24,092
“accidentel” frequency rank: #45,979
“accidentelles” frequency rank: 70071
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	accidentel	accidentelles
Definition	Qui arrive par accident.	Féminin pluriel de accidentel.

Same sound, different letters: accidentel vs accidentelles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. accidentel runs 10 letters (VCCVCVCCVC) against accidentelles's 13 (VCCVCVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch

accidentel

13 ch

accidentelles

Same sound, different spelling - accidentel / accidentelles

This is the hard kind. accidentel and accidentelles are pronounced identically (\ak.si.dɑ̃.tɛl\) 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 3 extra letter(s) - “accidentel” sits inside “accidentelles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accidentel is recorded at frequency rank #24,092, classified as anadj, pronounced \ak.si.dɑ̃.tɛl\. accidentelles is at rank #45,979, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ak.si.dɑ̃.tɛl\.

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 70071, this pair ranks #52,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of accidentel vs accidentelles

Shared letters: acdeilnt. Private to "accidentel": -. Private to "accidentelles": s.

"accidentel" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVC · "accidentelles" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

accidentel ← accdientel · acciddentel · accidenetl · accidenntel · accidentell · accidentle · accidenttel · accidetnel
accidentelles ← accdientelles · acciddentelles · accidenetlles · accidenntelles · accidentelels · accidenteles · accidentelless · accidentellse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "accidentel" and "accidentelles" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are pronounced the same (\ak.si.dɑ̃.tɛl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "accidentel" or "accidentelles"?

"accidentel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,092 in our French list, against #45,979 for "accidentelles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "accidentel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "accidentelles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #52,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"accidentel" and "accidentelles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accidentel vs accidentés". 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 #52,756 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.