finalevsfinalesConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#876
“finale” frequency rank
#6,396
“finales” frequency rank
7272
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature finale finales
Definition Partie opposant les deux derniers concurrents restant en lice, dans les tournois par élimination. Féminin pluriel de final.

Same sound, different letters: finale vs finales

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
finale
7 ch
finales

Ear matches; page differs - finale and finales

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: finale and finales carry the same recorded pronunciation, \fi.nal\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “finale” sits inside “finales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7272, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

finale is recorded at frequency rank #876, classified as anoun, pronounced \fi.nal\. finales is at rank #6,396, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fi.nal\.

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 7272, this pair ranks #423,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of finale vs finales

Shared letters: aefiln. Private to "finale": -. Private to "finales": s.

"finale" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "finales" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • finaleffinale · fianle · finael · finalle · finlae · finnale · fniale · ifnale
  • finalesffinales · fianles · finaels · finaless · finalles · finalse · finlaes · finnales

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "finale" for "finales" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "finale" is a noun and "finales" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "finale" vs "finales" - which ranks higher?
"finale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #876 in our French list, against #6,396 for "finales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "finale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "finales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #423,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "finale" and "finales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "finales vs fioles". 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 #423,651 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