Which to use
“capitale” is a noun and “capitals” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,388
- “capitale” frequency rank
- #39,690
- “capitals” frequency rank
- 41078
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | capitale | capitals |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ville où siègent le gouvernement et le pouvoir législatif de l’État. | Masculin pluriel de capital. |
Where the eye mixes capitale and capitals
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. capitale (CVCVCVCV) and capitals (CVCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: capitale vs capitals
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: capitale is \ka.pi.tal\ while capitals is \ka.pi.ˈtals\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “capitale” becomes s in “capitals”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41078, 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\. capitals is at rank #39,690, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ka.pi.ˈtals\.
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 41078, this pair ranks #235,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of capitale vs capitals
Shared letters: acilpt. Private to "capitale": e. Private to "capitals": s.
"capitale" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "capitals" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "capitale" and "capitals" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "capitale" or "capitals" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "capitale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "capitals" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #235,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "capitale" and "capitals" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capitals vs caritas". 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 #235,691 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.