Which to use
“essai” and “essais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,277
- “essai” frequency rank
- #2,877
- “essais” frequency rank
- 5154
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essai | essais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Test, examen, épreuve de solidité, de pérennité, d’adéquation, de potabilité, de comestibilité, etc. | Pluriel de essai. |
Where the eye mixes essai and essais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. essai runs 5 letters (VCCVV) against essais's 6 (VCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses essai with essais
A purely visual mix-up. essai (\e.sɛ\) and essais (\ɛ.sɛ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “essai” sits inside “essais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essai is recorded at frequency rank #2,277, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.sɛ\. essais is at rank #2,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.sɛ\.
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 5154, this pair ranks #429,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of essai vs essais
Shared letters: aeis. Private to "essai": -. Private to "essais": -.
"essai" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "essais" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "essai" and "essais" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "essai" vs "essais" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "essai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essai" and "essais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essais vs essay". 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 #429,758 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.