distantevsdistantesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,983
“distante” frequency rank
#45,551
“distantes” frequency rank
66534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature distante distantes
Definition Féminin singulier de distant. Féminin pluriel de distant.

Same sound, different letters: distante vs distantes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

8 ch
distante
9 ch
distantes

Ear matches; page differs - distante and distantes

This is the hard kind. distante and distantes are pronounced identically (\dis.tɑ̃t\) 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 extra letter(s) - “distante” sits inside “distantes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

distante is recorded at frequency rank #20,983, classified as anadj, pronounced \dis.tɑ̃t\. distantes is at rank #45,551, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dis.tɑ̃t\.

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 66534, this pair ranks #67,397 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of distante vs distantes

Shared letters: adeinst. Private to "distante": -. Private to "distantes": -.

"distante" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "distantes" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • distanteddistante · disatnte · disstante · distanet · distannte · distantte · distatne · distnate
  • distantesddistantes · disatntes · disstantes · distanets · distanntes · distantess · distantse · distanttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "distante" and "distantes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\dis.tɑ̃t\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "distante" or "distantes" show up more?
"distante" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,983 in our French list, against #45,551 for "distantes". 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 "distante" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "distantes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,397 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "distante" and "distantes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "distancer vs distantes". 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 #67,397 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