Which to use
“espace” and “espèces” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #739
- “espace” frequency rank
- #1,864
- “espèces” frequency rank
- 2603
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | espace | espèces |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étendue indéfinie. | Pluriel de espèce. |
Where the eye mixes espace and espèces
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. espace runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against espèces's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses espace with espèces
A purely visual mix-up. espace (\ɛs.pas\) and espèces (\ɛs.pɛs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2603, 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\. espèces is at rank #1,864, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pɛs\.
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 2603, this pair ranks #435,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of espace vs espèces
Shared letters: ceps. Private to "espace": a. Private to "espèces": è.
"espace" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "espèces" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- espace ← epsace · esapce · espacce · espaec · espcae · esppace · esspace · sepace
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "espace" and "espèces" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "espace" or "espèces" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "espace" and "espèces" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "espace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "espèces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #435,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "espace" and "espèces" 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 #435,822 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.