établievsétablisWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: établie is a noun, établis is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“établie” is a noun and “établis” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,094
“établie” frequency rank
#8,182
“établis” frequency rank
13276
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature établie établis
Definition Militante révolutionnaire qui s’installe comme ouvrière d'usine pour mener des luttes syndicales. Masculin pluriel de établi.

Same sound, different letters: établie vs établis

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. établie (VCVCCVV) and établis (VCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
établie
7 ch
établis

Same sound, different spelling - établie / établis

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: établie and établis carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.ta.bli\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “établie” becomes s in “établis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13276, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

établie is recorded at frequency rank #5,094, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ta.bli\. établis is at rank #8,182, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.ta.bli\.

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 13276, this pair ranks #401,695 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of établie vs établis

Shared letters: abilté. Private to "établie": e. Private to "établis": s.

"établie" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV  ·  "établis" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "établie" and "établis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "établie" is a noun and "établis" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "établie" or "établis"?
"établie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,094 in our French list, against #8,182 for "établis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "établie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "établis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,695 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "établie" and "établis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "érables vs établis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #401,695 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