frontiervsfrontièresConfusable pair

Quick tell: frontier is a adjective, frontières is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#45,623
“frontier” frequency rank
#2,777
“frontières” frequency rank
48400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature frontier frontières
Definition Frontalier, limitrophe. Pluriel de frontière.

Letter map: frontier vs frontières

Shared letters muted; letters that set frontier and frontières apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

8 ch
frontier
10 ch
frontières

Role in the sentence - frontier and frontières

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: frontier is anadjective and frontièresanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

frontier is recorded at frequency rank #45,623, classified as anadj. frontières is at rank #2,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁɔ̃.tjɛʁ\.

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 48400, this pair ranks #179,241 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of frontier vs frontières

Shared letters: efinort. Private to "frontier": -. Private to "frontières": .

"frontier" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVVC  ·  "frontières" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frontierffrontier · forntier · frnotier · froniter · fronntier · fronteir · frontierr · frontire

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "frontier" for "frontières" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "frontier" is an adjective and "frontières" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "frontier" or "frontières" show up more?
"frontières" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,777 in our French list, against #45,623 for "frontier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "frontier" and "frontières".

  • Full dictionary entry for "frontier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frontières" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #179,241 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "frontier" and "frontières" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fortier vs frontier". 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 #179,241 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