bénignevsbénignesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#25,238
“bénigne” frequency rank
#48,957
“bénignes” frequency rank
74195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bénigne bénignes
Definition Féminin singulier de bénin. Féminin pluriel de bénin.

Same sound, different letters: bénigne vs bénignes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. bénigne runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against bénignes's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
bénigne
8 ch
bénignes

Ear matches; page differs - bénigne and bénignes

This is the hard kind. bénigne and bénignes are pronounced identically (\be.niɲ\) 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) - “bénigne” sits inside “bénignes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bénigne is recorded at frequency rank #25,238, classified as anadj, pronounced \be.niɲ\. bénignes is at rank #48,957, tagged as anadj, pronounced \be.niɲ\.

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 74195, this pair ranks #37,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bénigne vs bénignes

Shared letters: beginé. Private to "bénigne": -. Private to "bénignes": s.

"bénigne" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "bénignes" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bénigne" and "bénignes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\be.niɲ\), 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 "bénigne" or "bénignes" show up more?
"bénigne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,238 in our French list, against #48,957 for "bénignes". 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 "bénigne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bénignes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bénigne" and "bénignes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bénignes vs bennes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #37,924 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