américainevsaméricainsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,054
“américaine” frequency rank
#1,175
“américains” frequency rank
2229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature américaine américains
Definition Voiture hippomobile, sorte de phaéton. Masculin pluriel de américain.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set américaine and américains apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch
américaine
10 ch
américains

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: américaine is \a.me.ʁi.kɛn\ while américains is \a.me.ʁi.kɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “américaine” becomes s in “américains”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

américaine is recorded at frequency rank #1,054, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.me.ʁi.kɛn\. américains is at rank #1,175, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.me.ʁi.kɛ̃\.

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 2229, this pair ranks #436,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of américaine vs américains

Shared letters: acimnré. Private to "américaine": e. Private to "américains": s.

"américaine" · 10 letters · shape VCVCVCVVCV  ·  "américains" · 10 letters · shape VCVCVCVVCC

Frequency comparison

américaine#1,054
américains#1,175

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "américaine" and "américains" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "américaine" is a noun and "américains" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "américaine" or "américains"?
"américaine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,054 in our French list, against #1,175 for "américains". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering américaine vs américains

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “américaine”; for an adjective, it's “américains”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “américaine” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list