érablevsérablesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#13,499
“érable” frequency rank
#45,396
“érables” frequency rank
58895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature érable érables
Definition Genre d’arbre qui croît naturellement dans les régions tempérées à feuilles opposées, pétiolées et palmatilobées, généralement simples, dont le fruit est une disamare formée de 2 samares réunies à la base, et dont plusieurs espèces fournissent une liqueur qui peut être convertie en sucre par évaporation. Pluriel de érable.

Same sound, different letters: érable vs érables

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
érable
7 ch
érables

Same sound, different spelling - érable / érables

This is the hard kind. érable and érables are pronounced identically (\e.ʁabl\) 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) - “érable” sits inside “érables”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

érable is recorded at frequency rank #13,499, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ʁabl\. érables is at rank #45,396, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.ʁabl\.

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 58895, this pair ranks #106,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of érable vs érables

Shared letters: abelré. Private to "érable": -. Private to "érables": s.

"érable" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "érables" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "érable" and "érables" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.ʁabl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "érable" or "érables"?
"érable" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,499 in our French list, against #45,396 for "érables". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "érable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "érables" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #106,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "érable" and "érables" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "érables vs étable". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #106,268 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