familiervsfamilièresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,391
“familier” frequency rank
#38,290
“familières” frequency rank
46681
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature familier familières
Definition Qui est considéré comme appartenant à la famille. Féminin pluriel de familier.

Where the eye mixes familier and familières

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. familier runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against familières's 10 (CVCVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
familier
10 ch
familières

Visual trap between familier and familières

A purely visual mix-up. familier (\fa.mi.lje\) and familières (\fa.mi.ljɛʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

familier is recorded at frequency rank #8,391, classified as anadj, pronounced \fa.mi.lje\. familières is at rank #38,290, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fa.mi.ljɛʁ\.

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 46681, this pair ranks #192,988 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of familier vs familières

Shared letters: aefilmr. Private to "familier": -. Private to "familières": sè.

"familier" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "familières" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • familier ← afmilier · faimlier · famiiler · famileir · familierr · familire · famillier · famliier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "familier" for "familières" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fa.mi.lje\ versus \fa.mi.ljɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "familier" or "familières" show up more?
"familier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,391 in our French list, against #38,290 for "familières". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "familier" and "familières" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "familier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "familières" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,988 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "familier" and "familières" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "familière vs familières". 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 #192,988 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