australevsaustralesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,968
“australe” frequency rank
#41,657
“australes” frequency rank
68625
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature australe australes
Definition Définition manquante ou à compléter. (Ajouter) Pluriel de austral.

Same sound, different letters: australe vs australes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. australe runs 8 letters (VVCCCVCV) against australes's 9 (VVCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
australe
9 ch
australes

Same sound, different spelling - australe / australes

This is the hard kind. australe and australes are pronounced identically (\os.tʁal\) 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) - “australe” sits inside “australes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

australe is recorded at frequency rank #26,968, classified as anoun, pronounced \os.tʁal\. australes is at rank #41,657, tagged as anoun, pronounced \os.tʁal\.

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 68625, this pair ranks #58,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of australe vs australes

Shared letters: aelrstu. Private to "australe": -. Private to "australes": -.

"australe" · 8 letters · shape VVCCCVCV  ·  "australes" · 9 letters · shape VVCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • australe ← asutrale · ausrtale · ausstrale · austarle · austrael · australle · austrlae · austrrale
  • australes ← asutrales · ausrtales · ausstrales · austarles · austraels · australess · australles · australse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "australe" for "australes" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\os.tʁal\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "australe" vs "australes" - which ranks higher?
"australe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,968 in our French list, against #41,657 for "australes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "australe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "australes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "australe" and "australes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "austral vs australes". 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 #58,387 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