entraînevsentraînéesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: entraîne is a verb, entraînées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“entraîne” is a verb and “entraînées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,841
“entraîne” frequency rank
#40,250
“entraînées” frequency rank
44091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entraîne entraînées
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de entraîner. Féminin pluriel de entraîné.

Where the eye mixes entraîne and entraînées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. entraîne runs 8 letters (VCCCVVCV) against entraînées's 10 (VCCCVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
entraîne
10 ch
entraînées

Look-alike desk: entraîne vs entraînées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: entraîne is \ɑ̃.tʁɛn\ while entraînées is \ɑ̃.tʁe.ne\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entraîne is recorded at frequency rank #3,841, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁɛn\. entraînées is at rank #40,250, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁe.ne\.

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 44091, this pair ranks #213,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entraîne vs entraînées

Shared letters: aenrtî. Private to "entraîne": -. Private to "entraînées": sé.

"entraîne" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVVCV  ·  "entraînées" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "entraîne" and "entraînées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "entraîne" is a verb and "entraînées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "entraîne" or "entraînées" show up more?
"entraîne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,841 in our French list, against #40,250 for "entraînées". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "entraîne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entraînées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entraîne" and "entraînées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entraînées vs entraînera". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #213,120 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