capitalevscapitalesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#1,388
“capitale” frequency rank
#12,119
“capitales” frequency rank
13507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capitale capitales
Definition Ville où siègent le gouvernement et le pouvoir législatif de l’État. Féminin pluriel de capital.

Same sound, different letters: capitale vs capitales

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

8 ch
capitale
9 ch
capitales

Homophone desk: capitale vs capitales

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: capitale and capitales carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ka.pi.tal\. 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) - “capitale” sits inside “capitales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capitale is recorded at frequency rank #1,388, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.pi.tal\. capitales is at rank #12,119, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ka.pi.tal\.

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 13507, this pair ranks #400,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of capitale vs capitales

Shared letters: aceilpt. Private to "capitale": -. Private to "capitales": s.

"capitale" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "capitales" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capitale ← acpitale · caiptale · capiatle · capitael · capitalle · capitlae · capittale · cappitale
  • capitales ← acpitales · caiptales · capiatles · capitaels · capitaless · capitalles · capitalse · capitlaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "capitale" for "capitales" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "capitale" is a noun and "capitales" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "capitale" or "capitales"?
"capitale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,388 in our French list, against #12,119 for "capitales". 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 "capitale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capitales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #400,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capitale" and "capitales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capitales vs capitule". 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 #400,742 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