accidentellevsaccidentellesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#18,634
“accidentelle” frequency rank
#45,979
“accidentelles” frequency rank
64613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accidentelle accidentelles
Definition Plante qui croît en un lieu peu commun à son écologie. Féminin pluriel de accidentel.

Same sound, different letters: accidentelle vs accidentelles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters. accidentelle runs 12 letters (VCCVCVCCVCCV) against accidentelles's 13 (VCCVCVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
accidentelle
13 ch
accidentelles

Same sound, different spelling - accidentelle / accidentelles

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: accidentelle and accidentelles carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ak.si.dɑ̃.tɛl\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “accidentelle” sits inside “accidentelles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accidentelle is recorded at frequency rank #18,634, classified as anoun, 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 64613, this pair ranks #76,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of accidentelle vs accidentelles

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

"accidentelle" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVCCV  ·  "accidentelles" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accidentelle ← accdientelle · acciddentelle · accidenetlle · accidenntelle · accidentele · accidentelel · accidentlele · accidenttelle
  • accidentelles ← accdientelles · acciddentelles · accidenetlles · accidenntelles · accidentelels · accidenteles · accidentelless · accidentellse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "accidentelle" and "accidentelles" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "accidentelle" is a noun and "accidentelles" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "accidentelle" or "accidentelles" show up more?
"accidentelle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,634 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "accidentelle" 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 #76,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accidentelle" and "accidentelles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accidentel vs accidentelles". 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 #76,200 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