entretienvsentretiensConfusable pair

Which to use

“entretien” and “entretiens” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,592
“entretien” frequency rank
#6,501
“entretiens” frequency rank
8093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entretien entretiens
Definition Maintenance ; ensemble des soins et dépenses qu'exigent le maintien de certaines choses en bon état. Pluriel de entretien.

Same sound, different letters: entretien vs entretiens

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters.

9 ch
entretien
10 ch
entretiens

Ear matches; page differs - entretien and entretiens

This is the hard kind. entretien and entretiens are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\) 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) - “entretien” sits inside “entretiens”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entretien is recorded at frequency rank #1,592, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\. entretiens is at rank #6,501, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\.

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 8093, this pair ranks #421,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of entretien vs entretiens

Shared letters: einrt. Private to "entretien": -. Private to "entretiens": s.

"entretien" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVVC  ·  "entretiens" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entretienenntretien · enrtetien · entertien · entreiten · entretein · entretienn · entretine · entrettien
  • entretiensenntretiens · enrtetiens · entertiens · entreitens · entreteins · entretienns · entretienss · entretiesn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "entretien" and "entretiens" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "entretien" vs "entretiens" - which ranks higher?
"entretien" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,592 in our French list, against #6,501 for "entretiens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "entretien" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entretiens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #421,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entretien" and "entretiens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entretien vs entretuer". 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 #421,168 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