échafaudagevséchafaudagesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,612
“échafaudage” frequency rank
#44,821
“échafaudages” frequency rank
83433
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature échafaudage échafaudages
Definition Action d’établir des échafauds pour bâtir, pour peindre ou pour faire tout autre travail. Pluriel de échafaudage.

Where the eye mixes échafaudage and échafaudages

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. échafaudage runs 11 letters (VCCVCVVCVCV) against échafaudages's 12 (VCCVCVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
échafaudage
12 ch
échafaudages

Visual trap between échafaudage and échafaudages

A purely visual mix-up. échafaudage (\e.ʃa.fo.daʒ\) and échafaudages (\e.ʃa.fɔ.daʒ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “échafaudage” sits inside “échafaudages”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83433, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

échafaudage is recorded at frequency rank #38,612, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ʃa.fo.daʒ\. échafaudages is at rank #44,821, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ʃa.fɔ.daʒ\.

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 83433, this pair ranks #14,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of échafaudage vs échafaudages

Shared letters: acdefghué. Private to "échafaudage": -. Private to "échafaudages": s.

"échafaudage" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVVCVCV  ·  "échafaudages" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "échafaudage" for "échafaudages" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.ʃa.fo.daʒ\ versus \e.ʃa.fɔ.daʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "échafaudage" or "échafaudages"?
"échafaudage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,612 in our French list, against #44,821 for "échafaudages". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "échafaudage" and "échafaudages" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "échafaudage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "échafaudages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,846 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #14,846 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