contaminéevscontaminéesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,499
“contaminée” frequency rank
#40,690
“contaminées” frequency rank
69189
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contaminée contaminées
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de contaminer. Participe passé féminin pluriel de contaminer.

Same sound, different letters: contaminée vs contaminées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. contaminée runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCVV) against contaminées's 11 (CVCCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
contaminée
11 ch
contaminées

Ear matches; page differs - contaminée and contaminées

This is the hard kind. contaminée and contaminées are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\) and both work as averb. 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 extra letter(s) - “contaminée” sits inside “contaminées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69189, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contaminée is recorded at frequency rank #28,499, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\. contaminées is at rank #40,690, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\.

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 69189, this pair ranks #56,123 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of contaminée vs contaminées

Shared letters: aceimnoté. Private to "contaminée": -. Private to "contaminées": s.

"contaminée" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVV  ·  "contaminées" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "contaminée" and "contaminées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "contaminée" vs "contaminées" - which ranks higher?
"contaminée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,499 in our French list, against #40,690 for "contaminées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "contaminée" / "contaminées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contaminée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contaminées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,123 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contaminée" and "contaminées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contamine vs contaminées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,123 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