Which to use
“familles” and “famines” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,289
- “familles” frequency rank
- #35,508
- “famines” frequency rank
- 36797
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | familles | famines |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de famille. | Pluriel de famine. |
Where the eye mixes familles and famines
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. familles runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against famines's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between familles and famines
A purely visual mix-up. familles (\fa.mij\) and famines (\fa.min\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
familles is recorded at frequency rank #1,289, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.mij\. famines is at rank #35,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fa.min\.
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 36797, this pair ranks #267,058 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of familles vs famines
Shared letters: aefims. Private to "familles": l. Private to "famines": n.
"familles" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "famines" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "familles" for "famines" ever safe?
Which is more common, "familles" or "famines"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "familles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "famines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #267,058 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "familles" and "famines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faires vs famines". 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 #267,058 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.