frontière vs frontières, What's the Difference?

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.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set frontière and frontières apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch

frontière

10 ch

frontières

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

Frequency comparison

frontière#2,079

frontières#2,777

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "frontière" and "frontières" be used interchangeably?

No. They are pronounced the same (\fʁɔ̃.tjɛʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "frontière" or "frontières"?

"frontière" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,079 in our French list, against #2,777 for "frontières". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering frontière vs frontières

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “frontière” entry
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