appelévsappeléesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: appelé is a noun, appelées is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“appelé” is a noun and “appelées” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#994
“appelé” frequency rank
#11,524
“appelées” frequency rank
12518
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature appelé appelées
Definition Conscrit. Participe passé féminin pluriel du verbe appeler.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set appelé and appelées apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
appelé
8 ch
appelées

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: appelé is \a.ple\ while appelées is \a.pə.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “appelé” sits inside “appelées”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12518, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

appelé is recorded at frequency rank #994, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ple\. appelées is at rank #11,524, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.pə.le\.

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 12518, this pair ranks #404,937 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of appelé vs appelées

Shared letters: aelpé. Private to "appelé": -. Private to "appelées": s.

"appelé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "appelées" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC

Frequency comparison

appelé#994
appelées#11,524

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "appelé" and "appelées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "appelé" is a noun and "appelées" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "appelé" or "appelées"?
"appelé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #994 in our French list, against #11,524 for "appelées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering appelé vs appelées

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “appelé”; for a verb, it's “appelées”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “appelé” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list