compétiteurvscompétiteursWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: compétiteur is a adjective, compétiteurs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“compétiteur” is an adjective and “compétiteurs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,474
“compétiteur” frequency rank
#27,013
“compétiteurs” frequency rank
61487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature compétiteur compétiteurs
Definition Qui entre en compétition. Pluriel de compétiteur.

Same sound, different letters: compétiteur vs compétiteurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters. compétiteur runs 11 letters (CVCCVCVCVVC) against compétiteurs's 12 (CVCCVCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
compétiteur
12 ch
compétiteurs

Ear matches; page differs - compétiteur and compétiteurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: compétiteur and compétiteurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ̃.pe.ti.tœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “compétiteur” sits inside “compétiteurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

compétiteur is recorded at frequency rank #34,474, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.pe.ti.tœʁ\. compétiteurs is at rank #27,013, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.pe.ti.tœʁ\.

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 61487, this pair ranks #91,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of compétiteur vs compétiteurs

Shared letters: ceimoprtué. Private to "compétiteur": -. Private to "compétiteurs": s.

"compétiteur" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC  ·  "compétiteurs" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "compétiteur" for "compétiteurs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "compétiteur" is an adjective and "compétiteurs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "compétiteur" or "compétiteurs" show up more?
"compétiteurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,013 in our French list, against #34,474 for "compétiteur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"compétiteur" and "compétiteurs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "compétiteur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "compétiteurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #91,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "compétiteur" and "compétiteurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "compétiteurs vs compositeurs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #91,989 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