Which to use
“effective” and “effectives” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,990
- “effective” frequency rank
- #37,305
- “effectives” frequency rank
- 47295
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | effective | effectives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de effectif. | Féminin pluriel de effectif. |
Same sound, different letters: effective vs effectives
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - effective and effectives
This is the hard kind. effective and effectives are pronounced identically (\e.fɛk.tiv\) 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) - “effective” sits inside “effectives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
effective is recorded at frequency rank #9,990, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.fɛk.tiv\. effectives is at rank #37,305, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.fɛk.tiv\.
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 47295, this pair ranks #188,080 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of effective vs effectives
Shared letters: cefitv. Private to "effective": -. Private to "effectives": s.
"effective" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV · "effectives" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- effective ← efective · efefctive · effcetive · effecctive · effecitve · effectiev · effectivve · effecttive
- effectives ← efectives · efefctives · effcetives · effecctives · effecitves · effectievs · effectivess · effectivse
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "effective" and "effectives" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "effective" vs "effectives" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "effective" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "effectives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #188,080 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "effective" and "effectives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "effective vs élective". 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 #188,080 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.