débordéevsdébordésConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#34,992
“débordée” frequency rank
#31,455
“débordés” frequency rank
66447
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débordée débordés
Definition Féminin singulier de débordé. Masculin pluriel de débordé.

Same sound, different letters: débordée vs débordés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. débordée (CVCVCCVV) and débordés (CVCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
débordée
8 ch
débordés

Ear matches; page differs - débordée and débordés

This is the hard kind. débordée and débordés are pronounced identically (\de.bɔʁ.de\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - e in “débordée” becomes s in “débordés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débordée is recorded at frequency rank #34,992, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.bɔʁ.de\. débordés is at rank #31,455, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.bɔʁ.de\.

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 66447, this pair ranks #67,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débordée vs débordés

Shared letters: bdoré. Private to "débordée": e. Private to "débordés": s.

"débordée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "débordés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "débordée" and "débordés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.bɔʁ.de\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "débordée" vs "débordés" - which ranks higher?
"débordés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,455 in our French list, against #34,992 for "débordée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "débordée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "débordés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débordée" and "débordés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débordée vs déportée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #67,789 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