attentionvsattentionsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#608
“attention” frequency rank
#18,398
“attentions” frequency rank
19006
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature attention attentions
Definition Concentration particulière sur quelque chose ; application d’esprit à quelque chose. Pluriel de attention.

Same sound, different letters: attention vs attentions

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.

9 ch
attention
10 ch
attentions

Same sound, different spelling - attention / attentions

This is the hard kind. attention and attentions are pronounced identically (\a.tɑ̃.sjɔ̃\) 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) - “attention” sits inside “attentions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

attention is recorded at frequency rank #608, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.tɑ̃.sjɔ̃\. attentions is at rank #18,398, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.tɑ̃.sjɔ̃\.

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 19006, this pair ranks #375,509 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of attention vs attentions

Shared letters: aeinot. Private to "attention": -. Private to "attentions": s.

"attention" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC  ·  "attentions" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • attentionatention · atetntion · atteniton · attenntion · attentino · attentionn · attentoin · attenttion
  • attentionsatentions · atetntions · attenitons · attenntions · attentinos · attentionns · attentionss · attentiosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "attention" and "attentions" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.tɑ̃.sjɔ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "attention" vs "attentions" - which ranks higher?
"attention" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #608 in our French list, against #18,398 for "attentions". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "attention" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "attentions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,509 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "attention" and "attentions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abstentions vs attentions". 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 #375,509 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