Which to use
“frontière” and “frontières” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,079
- “frontière” frequency rank
- #2,777
- “frontières” frequency rank
- 4856
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | frontière | frontières |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Les limites d’un état ou d’une contrée en tant qu’elles le séparent d’un autre état, d’une autre contrée. | Pluriel de frontière. |
Same sound, different letters: frontière vs frontières
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. frontière runs 9 letters (CCVCCVVCV) against frontières's 10 (CCVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - frontière / frontières
This is the hard kind. frontière and frontières are pronounced identically (\fʁɔ̃.tjɛʁ\) 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) - “frontière” sits inside “frontières”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
frontière is recorded at frequency rank #2,079, classified as anoun, pronounced \fʁɔ̃.tjɛʁ\. 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 4856, this pair ranks #430,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of frontière vs frontières
Shared letters: efinortè. Private to "frontière": -. Private to "frontières": s.
"frontière" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVVCV · "frontières" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "frontière" and "frontières" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "frontière" vs "frontières" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "frontière" 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 #430,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "frontière" and "frontières" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frontières vs frontistes". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #430,512 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.