aériennevsaériennesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,214
“aérienne” frequency rank
#7,278
“aériennes” frequency rank
12492
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aérienne aériennes
Definition Féminin singulier de aérien. Féminin pluriel de aérien.

Same sound, different letters: aérienne vs aériennes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. aérienne runs 8 letters (VVCVVCCV) against aériennes's 9 (VVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
aérienne
9 ch
aériennes

Homophone desk: aérienne vs aériennes

This is the hard kind. aérienne and aériennes are pronounced identically (\a.e.ʁjɛn\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “aérienne” sits inside “aériennes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aérienne is recorded at frequency rank #5,214, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.e.ʁjɛn\. aériennes is at rank #7,278, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.e.ʁjɛn\.

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 12492, this pair ranks #405,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aérienne vs aériennes

Shared letters: aeinré. Private to "aérienne": -. Private to "aériennes": s.

"aérienne" · 8 letters · shape VVCVVCCV  ·  "aériennes" · 9 letters · shape VVCVVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aérienne" for "aériennes" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.e.ʁjɛn\), 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, "aérienne" or "aériennes"?
"aérienne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,214 in our French list, against #7,278 for "aériennes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aérienne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aériennes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #405,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aérienne" and "aériennes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "advienne vs aérienne". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #405,046 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