familialevsfamiliauxWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,844
“familiale” frequency rank
#11,773
“familiaux” frequency rank
15617
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature familiale familiaux
Definition Féminin singulier de familial. Masculin pluriel de familial.

Where the eye mixes familiale and familiaux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. familiale (CVCVCVVCV) and familiaux (CVCVCVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
familiale
9 ch
familiaux

Look-alike desk: familiale vs familiaux

A purely visual mix-up. familiale (\fa.mi.ljal\) and familiaux (\fa.mi.ljo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

familiale is recorded at frequency rank #3,844, classified as anadj, pronounced \fa.mi.ljal\. familiaux is at rank #11,773, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fa.mi.ljo\.

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 15617, this pair ranks #391,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of familiale vs familiaux

Shared letters: afilm. Private to "familiale": e. Private to "familiaux": ux.

"familiale" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCV  ·  "familiaux" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • familialeafmiliale · faimliale · famiilale · familaile · familiael · familialle · famililae · familliale
  • familiauxafmiliaux · faimliaux · famiilaux · familaiux · familiauxx · familiaxu · familiuax · familliaux

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "familiale" for "familiaux" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fa.mi.ljal\ versus \fa.mi.ljo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "familiale" or "familiaux"?
"familiale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,844 in our French list, against #11,773 for "familiaux". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "familiale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "familiaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #391,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "familiale" and "familiaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "familia vs familiaux". 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 #391,595 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