familiersvsfamillesConfusable pair

Quick tell: familiers is a adjective, familles is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,286
“familiers” frequency rank
#1,289
“familles” frequency rank
20575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature familiers familles
Definition Masculin pluriel de familier. Pluriel de famille.

Where the eye mixes familiers and familles

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. familiers runs 9 letters (CVCVCVVCC) against familles's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
familiers
8 ch
familles

Why the eye confuses familiers with familles

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: familiers is \fa.mi.lje\ while familles is \fa.mij\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

familiers is recorded at frequency rank #19,286, classified as anadj, pronounced \fa.mi.lje\. familles is at rank #1,289, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fa.mij\.

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 20575, this pair ranks #367,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of familiers vs familles

Shared letters: aefilms. Private to "familiers": r. Private to "familles": -.

"familiers" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC  ·  "familles" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • familiersafmiliers · faimliers · famiilers · famileirs · familierrs · familierss · familiesr · familires
  • famillesafmilles · faimlles · familels · familes · familless · famillse · famliles · fammilles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "familiers" for "familles" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "familiers" is an adjective and "familles" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "familiers" or "familles"?
"familles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,289 in our French list, against #19,286 for "familiers". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "familiers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "familles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,567 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "familiers" and "familles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "familiers vs fusiliers". 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 #367,567 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