bactériennevsbactériennesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,238
“bactérienne” frequency rank
#42,759
“bactériennes” frequency rank
71997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bactérienne bactériennes
Definition Féminin singulier de bactérien. Féminin pluriel de bactérien.

Same sound, different letters: bactérienne vs bactériennes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters. bactérienne runs 11 letters (CVCCVCVVCCV) against bactériennes's 12 (CVCCVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
bactérienne
12 ch
bactériennes

Ear matches; page differs - bactérienne and bactériennes

This is the hard kind. bactérienne and bactériennes are pronounced identically (\bak.te.ʁjɛn\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “bactérienne” sits inside “bactériennes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bactérienne is recorded at frequency rank #29,238, classified as anadj, pronounced \bak.te.ʁjɛn\. bactériennes is at rank #42,759, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bak.te.ʁjɛn\.

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 71997, this pair ranks #45,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bactérienne vs bactériennes

Shared letters: abceinrté. Private to "bactérienne": -. Private to "bactériennes": s.

"bactérienne" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCCV  ·  "bactériennes" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bactérienne" and "bactériennes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\bak.te.ʁjɛn\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "bactérienne" vs "bactériennes" - which ranks higher?
"bactérienne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,238 in our French list, against #42,759 for "bactériennes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bactérienne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bactériennes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #45,561 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