Which to use
“claires” and “clairs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,288
- “claires” frequency rank
- #8,820
- “clairs” frequency rank
- 16108
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | claires | clairs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin pluriel de clair. | Masculin pluriel de clair. |
Same sound, different letters: claires vs clairs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. claires runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against clairs's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - claires / clairs
This is the hard kind. claires and clairs are pronounced identically (\klɛʁ\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
claires is recorded at frequency rank #7,288, classified as anadj, pronounced \klɛʁ\. clairs is at rank #8,820, tagged as anadj, pronounced \klɛʁ\.
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 16108, this pair ranks #389,351 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of claires vs clairs
Shared letters: acilrs. Private to "claires": e. Private to "clairs": -.
"claires" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "clairs" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "claires" and "clairs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "claires" or "clairs" show up more?
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 "claires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clairs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,351 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "claires" and "clairs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caïds vs clairs". 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 #389,351 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.