Which to use
“frère” and “frères” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #542
- “frère” frequency rank
- #1,265
- “frères” frequency rank
- 1807
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | frère | frères |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Homme ou garçon enfant du même père et de la même mère qu’un ou plusieurs autre(s) individu(s) ; membre masculin d’une adelphie. | Ensemble des personnes qui sont frères les uns des autres. |
Same sound, different letters: frère vs frères
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Homophone desk: frère vs frères
This is the hard kind. frère and frères are pronounced identically (\fʁɛʁ\) 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) - “frère” sits inside “frères”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
frère is recorded at frequency rank #542, classified as anoun, pronounced \fʁɛʁ\. frères is at rank #1,265, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁɛʁ\.
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 1807, this pair ranks #437,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of frère vs frères
Shared letters: efrè. Private to "frère": -. Private to "frères": s.
"frère" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "frères" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "frère" and "frères" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "frère" or "frères"?
What to do next
"frère" and "frères" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "frère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frères" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "frère" and "frères" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs frère". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #437,360 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.