Which to use
“frapper” is a verb and “frappes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,757
- “frapper” frequency rank
- #9,663
- “frappes” frequency rank
- 13420
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | frapper | frappes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Donner un ou plusieurs coups à quelqu’un, à quelque chose. | Pluriel de frappe. |
Where the eye mixes frapper and frappes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. frapper and frappes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses frapper with frappes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: frapper is \fʁa.pe\ while frappes is \fʁap\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “frapper” becomes s in “frappes”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13420, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
frapper is recorded at frequency rank #3,757, classified as averb, pronounced \fʁa.pe\. frappes is at rank #9,663, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁap\.
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 13420, this pair ranks #401,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of frapper vs frappes
Shared letters: aefpr. Private to "frapper": -. Private to "frappes": s.
"frapper" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "frappes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "frapper" and "frappes" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "frapper" or "frappes"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "frapper" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frappes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "frapper" and "frappes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frappes vs frappeurs". 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 #401,109 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.