Which to use
“bleu” and “bleues” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,470
- “bleu” frequency rank
- #9,611
- “bleues” frequency rank
- 11081
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bleu | bleues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | De la couleur du ciel en plein jour quand il est dégagé. #0000FF | Féminin pluriel de bleu. |
Same sound, different letters: bleu vs bleues
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - bleu and bleues
This is the hard kind. bleu and bleues are pronounced identically (\blø\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “bleu” sits inside “bleues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11081, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bleu is recorded at frequency rank #1,470, classified as anadj, pronounced \blø\. bleues is at rank #9,611, tagged as anadj, pronounced \blø\.
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 11081, this pair ranks #410,527 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bleu vs bleues
Shared letters: belu. Private to "bleu": -. Private to "bleues": s.
"bleu" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "bleues" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bleu" and "bleues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "bleu" vs "bleues" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
"bleu" and "bleues" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "bleu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bleues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #410,527 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bleu" and "bleues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bleues vs blouses". 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 #410,527 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.