amendevsamendesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,508
“amende” frequency rank
#9,112
“amendes” frequency rank
12620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amende amendes
Definition Peine pécuniaire imposée par la justice. Pluriel de amende.

Same sound, different letters: amende vs amendes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. amende runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against amendes's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
amende
7 ch
amendes

Ear matches; page differs - amende and amendes

This is the hard kind. amende and amendes are pronounced identically (\a.mɑ̃d\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “amende” sits inside “amendes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amende is recorded at frequency rank #3,508, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.mɑ̃d\. amendes is at rank #9,112, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.mɑ̃d\.

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 12620, this pair ranks #404,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of amende vs amendes

Shared letters: ademn. Private to "amende": -. Private to "amendes": s.

"amende" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "amendes" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amendeaemnde · amedne · amendde · amened · amennde · ammende · amnede · maende
  • amendesaemndes · amednes · amenddes · amendess · amendse · ameneds · amenndes · ammendes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "amende" and "amendes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.mɑ̃d\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "amende" vs "amendes" - which ranks higher?
"amende" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,508 in our French list, against #9,112 for "amendes". 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 "amende" / "amendes". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "amende" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "amendes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amende" and "amendes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amendée vs amendes". 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 #404,491 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