économesvséconomiesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: économes is a adjective, économies is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“économes” is an adjective and “économies” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,223
“économes” frequency rank
#4,113
“économies” frequency rank
47336
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature économes économies
Definition Pluriel de l’adjectif économe. Pluriel de économie.

Where the eye mixes économes and économies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. économes runs 8 letters (VCVCVCVC) against économies's 9 (VCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
économes
9 ch
économies

Why the eye confuses économes with économies

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: économes is \e.kɔ.nɔm\ while économies is \e.kɔ.nɔ.mi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47336, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

économes is recorded at frequency rank #43,223, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.kɔ.nɔm\. économies is at rank #4,113, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.kɔ.nɔ.mi\.

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 47336, this pair ranks #187,766 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of économes vs économies

Shared letters: cemnosé. Private to "économes": -. Private to "économies": i.

"économes" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC  ·  "économies" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "économes" for "économies" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "économes" is an adjective and "économies" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "économes" or "économies" show up more?
"économies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,113 in our French list, against #43,223 for "économes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "économes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "économies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,766 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "économes" and "économies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "économes vs economy". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #187,766 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