compagnievscompaniesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#751
“compagnie” frequency rank
#46,076
“companies” frequency rank
46827
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature compagnie companies
Definition Réunion de plusieurs personnes assemblées pour le plaisir d’être en société. Pluriel de company.

Where the eye mixes compagnie and companies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. compagnie (CVCCVCCVV) and companies (CVCCVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
compagnie
9 ch
companies

Look-alike desk: compagnie vs companies

A purely visual mix-up. compagnie (\kɔ̃.pa.ɲi\) and companies (\ˈkʌm.pə.niz\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

compagnie is recorded at frequency rank #751, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.pa.ɲi\. companies is at rank #46,076, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkʌm.pə.niz\.

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 46827, this pair ranks #191,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of compagnie vs companies

Shared letters: aceimnop. Private to "compagnie": g. Private to "companies": s.

"compagnie" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "companies" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • compagnie ← ccompagnie · cmopagnie · comapgnie · commpagnie · compaggnie · compagine · compagnei · compagnnie
  • companies ← ccompanies · cmopanies · comapnies · commpanies · compaines · companeis · companiess · companise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "compagnie" and "companies" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.pa.ɲi\ versus \ˈkʌm.pə.niz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "compagnie" or "companies"?
"compagnie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #751 in our French list, against #46,076 for "companies". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "compagnie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "companies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "compagnie" and "companies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "companies vs compares". 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 #191,769 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