Which to use
“effort” and “efforts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,997
- “effort” frequency rank
- #1,700
- “efforts” frequency rank
- 3697
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | effort | efforts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de s’efforcer. | Pluriel de effort. |
Same sound, different letters: effort vs efforts
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Homophone desk: effort vs efforts
This is the hard kind. effort and efforts are pronounced identically (\e.fɔʁ\) 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) - “effort” sits inside “efforts”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
effort is recorded at frequency rank #1,997, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.fɔʁ\. efforts is at rank #1,700, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.fɔʁ\.
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 3697, this pair ranks #433,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of effort vs efforts
Shared letters: efort. Private to "effort": -. Private to "efforts": s.
"effort" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "efforts" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "effort" and "efforts" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "effort" vs "efforts" - which ranks higher?
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 "effort" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "efforts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,398 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "effort" and "efforts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "effects vs efforts". 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 #433,398 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.