enquêteurvsenquêteursConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#17,417
“enquêteur” frequency rank
#10,497
“enquêteurs” frequency rank
27914
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enquêteur enquêteurs
Definition Qui enquête Pluriel de enquêteur.

Same sound, different letters: enquêteur vs enquêteurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. enquêteur runs 9 letters (VCCVVCVVC) against enquêteurs's 10 (VCCVVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
enquêteur
10 ch
enquêteurs

Ear matches; page differs - enquêteur and enquêteurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: enquêteur and enquêteurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɑ̃.kɛ.tœʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “enquêteur” sits inside “enquêteurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27914, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enquêteur is recorded at frequency rank #17,417, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.kɛ.tœʁ\. enquêteurs is at rank #10,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.kɛ.tœʁ\.

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 27914, this pair ranks #325,985 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enquêteur vs enquêteurs

Shared letters: enqrtuê. Private to "enquêteur": -. Private to "enquêteurs": s.

"enquêteur" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCVVC  ·  "enquêteurs" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "enquêteur" and "enquêteurs" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "enquêteur" is an adjective and "enquêteurs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "enquêteur" vs "enquêteurs" - which ranks higher?
"enquêteurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,497 in our French list, against #17,417 for "enquêteur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"enquêteur" and "enquêteurs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enquêteur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enquêteurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #325,985 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enquêteur" and "enquêteurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enquêtent vs enquêteur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #325,985 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