coopérativevscoopérativesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: coopérative is a noun, coopératives is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#9,630
“coopérative” frequency rank
#13,347
“coopératives” frequency rank
22977
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coopérative coopératives
Definition Société où les clients sont tous actionnaires. Féminin pluriel de coopératif.

Same sound, different letters: coopérative vs coopératives

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

11 ch
coopérative
12 ch
coopératives

Ear matches; page differs - coopérative and coopératives

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: coopérative and coopératives carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ.ɔ.pe.ʁa.tiv\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “coopérative” sits inside “coopératives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22977, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coopérative is recorded at frequency rank #9,630, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.ɔ.pe.ʁa.tiv\. coopératives is at rank #13,347, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ.ɔ.pe.ʁa.tiv\.

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 22977, this pair ranks #355,054 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coopérative vs coopératives

Shared letters: aceioprtvé. Private to "coopérative": -. Private to "coopératives": s.

"coopérative" · 11 letters · shape CVVCVCVCVCV  ·  "coopératives" · 12 letters · shape CVVCVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coopérative" and "coopératives" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coopérative" is a noun and "coopératives" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "coopérative" or "coopératives" show up more?
"coopérative" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,630 in our French list, against #13,347 for "coopératives". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "coopérative" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coopératives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #355,054 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coopérative" and "coopératives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comparatives vs coopératives". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #355,054 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