Which to use
“Claudel” is a name and “clauses” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,516
- “Claudel” frequency rank
- #12,742
- “clauses” frequency rank
- 35258
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Claudel | clauses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de famille, connu entre autres par Paul Claudel, écrivain français, Camille Claudel, sculptrice française, et Philippe Claudel, écrivain français. | Pluriel de clause. |
Where the eye mixes Claudel and clauses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Claudel and clauses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses Claudel with clauses
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Claudel is \klɔ.dɛl\ while clauses is \kloz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Claudel is recorded at frequency rank #22,516, classified as aname, pronounced \klɔ.dɛl\. clauses is at rank #12,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kloz\.
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 35258, this pair ranks #278,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Claudel vs clauses
Shared letters: acelu. Private to "Claudel": d. Private to "clauses": s.
"Claudel" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "clauses" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Claudel" for "clauses" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Claudel" vs "clauses" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Claudel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "clauses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #278,042 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Claudel" and "clauses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Claudel vs clavel". 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 #278,042 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.