feuillesvsfeuillusWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: feuilles is a noun, feuillus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,717
“feuilles” frequency rank
#41,289
“feuillus” frequency rank
44006
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feuilles feuillus
Definition Pluriel de feuille. Masculin pluriel de feuillu.

Where the eye mixes feuilles and feuillus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. feuilles and feuillus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
feuilles
8 ch
feuillus

Why the eye confuses feuilles with feuillus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feuilles is \fœj\ while feuillus is \fœ.jy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “feuilles” becomes u in “feuillus”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feuilles is recorded at frequency rank #2,717, classified as anoun, pronounced \fœj\. feuillus is at rank #41,289, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fœ.jy\.

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 44006, this pair ranks #213,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feuilles vs feuillus

Shared letters: efilsu. Private to "feuilles": -. Private to "feuillus": -.

"feuilles" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC  ·  "feuillus" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feuillesefuilles · feiulles · feuilels · feuiles · feuilless · feuillse · feuliles · ffeuilles
  • feuillusefuillus · feiullus · feuillsu · feuilluss · feuiluls · feuilus · feulilus · ffeuillus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feuilles" for "feuillus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feuilles" is a noun and "feuillus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "feuilles" or "feuillus"?
"feuilles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,717 in our French list, against #41,289 for "feuillus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feuilles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feuillus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feuilles" and "feuillus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feuillus vs fouillis". 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 #213,775 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