bulgarevsbulgaresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,311
“bulgare” frequency rank
#20,071
“bulgares” frequency rank
36382
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bulgare bulgares
Definition Relatif aux Bulgares ou au bulgare. Pluriel de bulgare.

Same sound, different letters: bulgare vs bulgares

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

7 ch
bulgare
8 ch
bulgares

Ear matches; page differs - bulgare and bulgares

This is the hard kind. bulgare and bulgares are pronounced identically (\byl.ɡaʁ\) 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) - “bulgare” sits inside “bulgares”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36382, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bulgare is recorded at frequency rank #16,311, classified as anadj, pronounced \byl.ɡaʁ\. bulgares is at rank #20,071, tagged as anadj, pronounced \byl.ɡaʁ\.

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 36382, this pair ranks #270,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bulgare vs bulgares

Shared letters: abeglru. Private to "bulgare": -. Private to "bulgares": s.

"bulgare" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "bulgares" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bulgare ← bbulgare · blugare · buglare · bulagre · bulgaer · bulgarre · bulggare · bulgrae
  • bulgares ← bbulgares · blugares · buglares · bulagres · bulgaers · bulgaress · bulgarres · bulgarse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bulgare" and "bulgares" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\byl.ɡaʁ\), 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 "bulgare" or "bulgares" show up more?
"bulgare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,311 in our French list, against #20,071 for "bulgares". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bulgare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bulgares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bulgare" and "bulgares" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Baléares vs bulgares". 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 #270,006 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