Which to use
“espace” and “espaces” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #739
- “espace” frequency rank
- #3,253
- “espaces” frequency rank
- 3992
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | espace | espaces |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étendue indéfinie. | Pluriel de espace. |
Same sound, different letters: espace vs espaces
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - espace and espaces
This is the hard kind. espace and espaces are pronounced identically (\ɛs.pas\) 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) - “espace” sits inside “espaces”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
espace is recorded at frequency rank #739, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pas\. espaces is at rank #3,253, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pas\.
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 3992, this pair ranks #432,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of espace vs espaces
Shared letters: aceps. Private to "espace": -. Private to "espaces": -.
"espace" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "espaces" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "espace" and "espaces" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "espace" or "espaces" show up more?
Useful next steps
"espace" and "espaces" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "espace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "espaces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #432,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "espace" and "espaces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "espace vs España". 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 #432,714 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.