fédérervsfédérésTell them apart

Quick tell: fédérer is a verb, fédérés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fédérer” is a verb and “fédérés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,605
“fédérer” frequency rank
#36,410
“fédérés” frequency rank
61015
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fédérer fédérés
Definition Réunir en fédération. Masculin pluriel de fédéré.

Same sound, different letters: fédérer vs fédérés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. fédérer and fédérés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
fédérer
7 ch
fédérés

Homophone desk: fédérer vs fédérés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: fédérer and fédérés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \fe.de.ʁe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fédérer is recorded at frequency rank #24,605, classified as averb, pronounced \fe.de.ʁe\. fédérés is at rank #36,410, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fe.de.ʁe\.

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 61015, this pair ranks #94,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fédérer vs fédérés

Shared letters: dfré. Private to "fédérer": e. Private to "fédérés": s.

"fédérer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "fédérés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fédérer" for "fédérés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fédérer" is a verb and "fédérés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "fédérer" or "fédérés" show up more?
"fédérer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,605 in our French list, against #36,410 for "fédérés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"fédérer" and "fédérés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fédérer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fédérés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #94,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fédérer" and "fédérés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fédérés vs feutres". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #94,525 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