Which to use
“certain” and “certains” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #705
- “certain” frequency rank
- #263
- “certains” frequency rank
- 968
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | certain | certains |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Indubitable. | Masculin pluriel de certain. |
Same sound, different letters: certain vs certains
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - certain and certains
This is the hard kind. certain and certains are pronounced identically (\sɛʁ.tɛ̃\) 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) - “certain” sits inside “certains”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
certain is recorded at frequency rank #705, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɛʁ.tɛ̃\. certains is at rank #263, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɛʁ.tɛ̃\.
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 968, this pair ranks #438,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of certain vs certains
Shared letters: aceinrt. Private to "certain": -. Private to "certains": s.
"certain" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "certains" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "certain" and "certains" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "certain" or "certains" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "certain" / "certains". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "certain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "certains" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "certain" and "certains" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "certain vs châtain". 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 #438,838 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.