frontalièrevsfrontalièresWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#27,450
“frontalière” frequency rank
#36,407
“frontalières” frequency rank
63857
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frontalière frontalières
Definition Femme qui habite une région frontalière. Féminin pluriel de frontalier.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set frontalière and frontalières apart are highlighted. They share 11 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

11 ch
frontalière
12 ch
frontalières

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: frontalière and frontalières carry the same recorded pronunciation, \fʁɔ̃.ta.ljɛʁ\. 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) - “frontalière” sits inside “frontalières”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63857, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frontalière is recorded at frequency rank #27,450, classified as anoun, pronounced \fʁɔ̃.ta.ljɛʁ\. frontalières is at rank #36,407, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fʁɔ̃.ta.ljɛʁ\.

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 63857, this pair ranks #79,871 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of frontalière vs frontalières

Shared letters: aefilnortè. Private to "frontalière": -. Private to "frontalières": s.

"frontalière" · 11 letters · shape CCVCCVCVVCV  ·  "frontalières" · 12 letters · shape CCVCCVCVVCVC

Frequency comparison

frontalière#27,450
frontalières#36,407

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "frontalière" and "frontalières" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frontalière" is a noun and "frontalières" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "frontalière" or "frontalières"?
"frontalière" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,450 in our French list, against #36,407 for "frontalières". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering frontalière vs frontalières

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “frontalière”; for an adjective, it's “frontalières”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “frontalière” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list