cumulevscumulésConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#21,282
“cumule” frequency rank
#31,910
“cumulés” frequency rank
53192
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cumule cumulés
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de cumuler. Participe passé masculin pluriel de cumuler.

Where the eye mixes cumule and cumulés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cumule runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against cumulés's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cumule
7 ch
cumulés

Why the eye confuses cumule with cumulés

A purely visual mix-up. cumule (\ky.myl\) and cumulés (\ky.my.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cumule is recorded at frequency rank #21,282, classified as averb, pronounced \ky.myl\. cumulés is at rank #31,910, tagged as averb, pronounced \ky.my.le\.

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 53192, this pair ranks #142,457 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cumule vs cumulés

Shared letters: clmu. Private to "cumule": e. Private to "cumulés": sé.

"cumule" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cumulés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cumule ← ccumule · cmuule · cumlue · cummule · cumuel · cumulle · cuumle · ucmule

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cumule" and "cumulés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ky.myl\ versus \ky.my.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cumule" or "cumulés" show up more?
"cumule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,282 in our French list, against #31,910 for "cumulés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cumule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cumulés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,457 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cumule" and "cumulés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cumulées vs cumulés". 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 #142,457 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