Which to use
“catalan” and “catalans” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,359
- “catalan” frequency rank
- #16,088
- “catalans” frequency rank
- 27447
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | catalan | catalans |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatif à la Catalogne, sa langue, sa culture, ou ses habitants. | Masculin pluriel de catalan. |
Same sound, different letters: catalan vs catalans
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. catalan runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against catalans's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - catalan and catalans
This is the hard kind. catalan and catalans are pronounced identically (\ka.ta.lɑ̃\) 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) - “catalan” sits inside “catalans”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
catalan is recorded at frequency rank #11,359, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.ta.lɑ̃\. catalans is at rank #16,088, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ka.ta.lɑ̃\.
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 27447, this pair ranks #328,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of catalan vs catalans
Shared letters: aclnt. Private to "catalan": -. Private to "catalans": s.
"catalan" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "catalans" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "catalan" for "catalans" ever safe?
Which is more common, "catalan" or "catalans"?
What to do next
"catalan" and "catalans" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "catalan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "catalans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #328,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "catalan" and "catalans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "catalanes vs catalans". 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 #328,880 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.