Which to use
“capitaine” and “capitaines” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,387
- “capitaine” frequency rank
- #17,647
- “capitaines” frequency rank
- 19034
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | capitaine | capitaines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Grade d’officier, le plus élevé en grade des officiers subalternes. Ce grade correspond à celui de lieutenant de vaisseau dans la Marine nationale française. Le code OTAN : OF-2. Dans la Marine nationale : Capitaine de corvette, de frégate, de vaisseau, officiers de marine dont les grades équivalent respectivement à ceux de commandant, lieutenant-colonel, colonel dans l'armée de terre. | Pluriel de capitaine. |
Same sound, different letters: capitaine vs capitaines
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. capitaine runs 9 letters (CVCVCVVCV) against capitaines's 10 (CVCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: capitaine vs capitaines
This is the hard kind. capitaine and capitaines are pronounced identically (\ka.pi.tɛn\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “capitaine” sits inside “capitaines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
capitaine is recorded at frequency rank #1,387, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.pi.tɛn\. capitaines is at rank #17,647, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.pi.tɛn\.
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 19034, this pair ranks #375,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of capitaine vs capitaines
Shared letters: aceinpt. Private to "capitaine": -. Private to "capitaines": s.
"capitaine" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCV · "capitaines" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- capitaine ← acpitaine · caiptaine · capiatine · capitaien · capitainne · capitanie · capitiane · capittaine
- capitaines ← acpitaines · caiptaines · capiatines · capitaiens · capitainess · capitainnes · capitainse · capitanies
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "capitaine" and "capitaines" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "capitaine" or "capitaines"?
Useful next steps
"capitaine" and "capitaines" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "capitaine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "capitaines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #375,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "capitaine" and "capitaines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capitaines vs capitales". 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 #375,360 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.