destinévsdestinéesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: destiné is a verb, destinées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“destiné” is a verb and “destinées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,066
“destiné” frequency rank
#5,746
“destinées” frequency rank
8812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature destiné destinées
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe destiner. Féminin pluriel de destiné.

Same sound, different letters: destiné vs destinées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
destiné
9 ch
destinées

Homophone desk: destiné vs destinées

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: destiné and destinées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \dɛs.ti.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “destiné” sits inside “destinées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

destiné is recorded at frequency rank #3,066, classified as averb, pronounced \dɛs.ti.ne\. destinées is at rank #5,746, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dɛs.ti.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 8812, this pair ranks #418,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of destiné vs destinées

Shared letters: deinsté. Private to "destiné": -. Private to "destinées": -.

"destiné" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "destinées" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "destiné" for "destinées" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "destiné" is a verb and "destinées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "destiné" or "destinées" show up more?
"destiné" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,066 in our French list, against #5,746 for "destinées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "destiné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "destinées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "destiné" and "destinées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dessina vs destiné". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #418,761 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