bretonnevsbretonnesTell them apart

Quick tell: bretonne is a noun, bretonnes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bretonne” is a noun and “bretonnes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,324
“bretonne” frequency rank
#25,573
“bretonnes” frequency rank
37897
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bretonne bretonnes
Definition Sorte de capote. Féminin pluriel de breton.

Same sound, different letters: bretonne vs bretonnes

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

8 ch
bretonne
9 ch
bretonnes

Same sound, different spelling - bretonne / bretonnes

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: bretonne and bretonnes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \bʁə.tɔn\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “bretonne” sits inside “bretonnes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bretonne is recorded at frequency rank #12,324, classified as anoun, pronounced \bʁə.tɔn\. bretonnes is at rank #25,573, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bʁə.tɔn\.

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 37897, this pair ranks #259,196 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bretonne vs bretonnes

Shared letters: benort. Private to "bretonne": -. Private to "bretonnes": s.

"bretonne" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV  ·  "bretonnes" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bretonnebbretonne · bertonne · breotnne · bretnone · bretone · bretonen · brettonne · brretonne
  • bretonnesbbretonnes · bertonnes · breotnnes · bretnones · bretonens · bretones · bretonness · bretonnse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bretonne" for "bretonnes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bretonne" is a noun and "bretonnes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "bretonne" or "bretonnes" show up more?
"bretonne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,324 in our French list, against #25,573 for "bretonnes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "bretonne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bretonnes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #259,196 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bretonne" and "bretonnes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bretonnes vs bretons". 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 #259,196 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