anniversairevsanniversairesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,429
“anniversaire” frequency rank
#17,618
“anniversaires” frequency rank
19047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anniversaire anniversaires
Definition Retour annuel d’un jour marqué par un événement. Pluriel de anniversaire.

Same sound, different letters: anniversaire vs anniversaires

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

12 ch
anniversaire
13 ch
anniversaires

Same sound, different spelling - anniversaire / anniversaires

This is the hard kind. anniversaire and anniversaires are pronounced identically (\a.ni.vɛʁ.sɛʁ\) 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) - “anniversaire” sits inside “anniversaires”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anniversaire is recorded at frequency rank #1,429, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ni.vɛʁ.sɛʁ\. anniversaires is at rank #17,618, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ni.vɛʁ.sɛʁ\.

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 19047, this pair ranks #375,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of anniversaire vs anniversaires

Shared letters: aeinrsv. Private to "anniversaire": -. Private to "anniversaires": -.

"anniversaire" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVVCV  ·  "anniversaires" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anniversaire ← aninversaire · aniversaire · annievrsaire · anniverasire · anniverrsaire · anniversaier · anniversairre · anniversarie
  • anniversaires ← aninversaires · aniversaires · annievrsaires · anniverasires · anniverrsaires · anniversaiers · anniversairess · anniversairres

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "anniversaire" and "anniversaires" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.ni.vɛʁ.sɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "anniversaire" or "anniversaires" show up more?
"anniversaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,429 in our French list, against #17,618 for "anniversaires". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

"anniversaire" and "anniversaires" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "anniversaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "anniversaires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • 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 #375,309 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