collesvscongésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“colles” and “congés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,596
“colles” frequency rank
#8,826
“congés” frequency rank
34422
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature colles congés
Definition Pluriel de colle. Pluriel de congé.

Where the eye mixes colles and congés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
colles
6 ch
congés

Look-alike desk: colles vs congés

A purely visual mix-up. colles (\kɔl\) and congés (\kɔ̃.ʒe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34422, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

colles is recorded at frequency rank #25,596, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔl\. congés is at rank #8,826, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.ʒe\.

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 34422, this pair ranks #283,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of colles vs congés

Shared letters: cos. Private to "colles": el. Private to "congés": gné.

"colles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "congés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • collesccolles · cloles · colels · coles · colless · collse · oclles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "colles" and "congés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔl\ versus \kɔ̃.ʒe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "colles" vs "congés" - which ranks higher?
"congés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,826 in our French list, against #25,596 for "colles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "colles" and "congés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "colles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "congés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #283,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "colles" and "congés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "colla vs colles". 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 #283,944 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list