désignéesvsdésignésWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,564
“désignées” frequency rank
#11,571
“désignés” frequency rank
36135
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature désignées désignés
Definition Féminin pluriel de désigné. Masculin pluriel de désigné.

Same sound, different letters: désignées vs désignés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. désignées runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVVC) against désignés's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
désignées
8 ch
désignés

Ear matches; page differs - désignées and désignés

This is the hard kind. désignées and désignés are pronounced identically (\de.zi.ɲe\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désignées is recorded at frequency rank #24,564, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.zi.ɲe\. désignés is at rank #11,571, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zi.ɲe\.

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 36135, this pair ranks #271,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of désignées vs désignés

Shared letters: dginsé. Private to "désignées": e. Private to "désignés": -.

"désignées" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC  ·  "désignés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "désignées" and "désignés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.zi.ɲe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "désignées" vs "désignés" - which ranks higher?
"désignés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,571 in our French list, against #24,564 for "désignées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "désignées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "désignés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,768 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "désignées" and "désignés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désignées vs désirées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #271,768 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