Which to use
“direction” and “directions” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #565
- “direction” frequency rank
- #7,812
- “directions” frequency rank
- 8377
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | direction | directions |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de diriger, de régler l’exécution d’une action, d'administrer un établissement ou de conduire une personne. | Pluriel de direction. |
Same sound, different letters: direction vs directions
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. direction runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVVC) against directions's 10 (CVCVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - direction and directions
This is the hard kind. direction and directions are pronounced identically (\di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\) and both work as anoun. 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 extra letter(s) - “direction” sits inside “directions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
direction is recorded at frequency rank #565, classified as anoun, pronounced \di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\. directions is at rank #7,812, tagged as anoun, pronounced \di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\.
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 8377, this pair ranks #420,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of direction vs directions
Shared letters: cdeinort. Private to "direction": -. Private to "directions": s.
"direction" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC · "directions" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- direction ← ddirection · dierction · dircetion · direcction · direciton · directino · directionn · directoin
- directions ← ddirections · dierctions · dircetions · direcctions · direcitons · directinos · directionns · directionss
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "direction" and "directions" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "direction" or "directions" show up more?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "direction" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "directions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #420,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "direction" and "directions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "défections vs directions". 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 #420,246 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.