favoritevsfavoritesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,408
“favorite” frequency rank
#20,446
“favorites” frequency rank
31854
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature favorite favorites
Definition Celle qui est l’objet d’une préférence marquée. Pluriel de favorite.

Same sound, different letters: favorite vs favorites

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. favorite runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against favorites's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
favorite
9 ch
favorites

Same sound, different spelling - favorite / favorites

This is the hard kind. favorite and favorites are pronounced identically (\fa.vɔ.ʁit\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “favorite” sits inside “favorites”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

favorite is recorded at frequency rank #11,408, classified as anoun, pronounced \fa.vɔ.ʁit\. favorites is at rank #20,446, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fa.vɔ.ʁit\.

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 31854, this pair ranks #301,126 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of favorite vs favorites

Shared letters: aefiortv. Private to "favorite": -. Private to "favorites": s.

"favorite" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "favorites" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • favoriteafvorite · faovrite · favoirte · favoriet · favoritte · favorrite · favortie · favroite
  • favoritesafvorites · faovrites · favoirtes · favoriets · favoritess · favoritse · favorittes · favorrites

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "favorite" and "favorites" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\fa.vɔ.ʁit\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "favorite" or "favorites" show up more?
"favorite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,408 in our French list, against #20,446 for "favorites". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "favorite" / "favorites". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "favorite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "favorites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #301,126 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "favorite" and "favorites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "favorisées vs favorites". 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 #301,126 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